The Mzungu Boy (14 page)

By the end of 1959, most of the Mau Mau guerillas had been wiped out, and the state of emergency was lifted. Casualties were estimated to be well over 12,000, virtually all native Africans.

Kenya became an independent country on December 12, 1963. Today it has a population of 32 million people.

About the Author

MEJA MWANGI
was born in Nanyuki, in central Kenya, in 1948. He has worked in film and television as a director, casting director and screenwriter, and he is the author of several novels and children's books, including
The Last Plague
,
Striving for the Wind
,
Kill Me Quick
and
Going Down River Road
. His books have been translated into several languages, including Basque, German, French, Russian and Japanese.
The Mzungu Boy
won the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis when it was first published in 1990.

About the Publisher

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS
, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children's books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.

Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.

We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.