The Elephant Girl by James Patterson and Ellen Banda-Aaku

Twelve-year-old Jama Anyango lives with her mother in their manyatta that contains only four enkajijik which her mother built by hand. Surrounding the four huts is a boma, a thick fence of vines to keep out the wild animals. Jama's Baba died four years earlier from an infected cut on his hand.To make ends meet, Jama's mother makes sandals that are much prized and are sold in the city.

Jama and her mother are Maasai and they are preparing to attend the Eunoto ceremony, a traditional Maasai coming of age for the boys in their village. In the past, Maasai boys would live together for ten years in the manyatta, learning how to survive in the bush. Today the tradition is different, as the Maasai no longer move their people and cattle from place to place.

Jama goes to meet her father's great-aunt, Kokoo Naserian who is believed to be around one hundred years old. She was born about ten seasons after the British forced the Maasai from their lands in 1911. Together they walk to the village center to enjoy the celebrations.

 

At the Eunoto ceremony, Jama meets up with her best friend, Nadira and some other girls. While Nadira and the others are interested in boys and getting married, Jama finds herself interested in having the same freedom and power as the boys: attending university and learning how to help the animals. At the celebration, all the girls are  focused on the new boy, Keku who arrived a few months ago with his father Solo Mungu. Keku's father, who works for the Kenya Wildlife Service, is the new head ranger responsible for stopping the poaching in the Naibunga Conservatory. The conservatory lands border Jama's village.

At the ceremony and celebrations, Jama realizes that Nadira and the other girls have been invited to Fatima's family's small safari lodge. So she decides to leave the party early but on her way home overhears Solo Mungu mistreating his wife and Keku.

Jama decides to visit the elephants at the watering hole a few days later to shake her dark mood. She discovered them one day four years earlier after wandering past the boundaries her mother had set for her to be safe. Jama didn't return to the water hole again for some time but she soon found it to be a place of escape and peace. She came to name some of the elephants: the leader was Shaba and there was Lulu, Tabia, Bawa, Modoc and Loasa. This time Jama sees Shaba with her baby elephant whose birth she witnessed weeks earlier and who Jama has named Mbegu.

 

Then on another visit to the watering hole, Jama sees the elephants react with fear. Hiding behind a tree she witnesses a strange man with a raised scar on his left cheek, carrying a gun, and dressed in black. When the elephants and the man move off, Jama begins to walk home but encounters Leku. At the gate to the reserve they see Leku's father in a Kenya Wildlife Service Land Rover and Jama wonders why he hasn't caught the strange man. 

 

Then Jama learns that a poacher has killed one of the elephants in the middle of the night. The village laibon, or spiritual leader warns the villagers about the poachers and that this may make the elephants stampede recklessly. At a village meeting, Kokoo Naserian confronts Solo Mungu over his inability to stop the poachers. Later on that night, Jama sneaks out of the manyatta and sees Mungu taking money from a prospective poacher. When she is discovered hiding, Jama flees with the help of Leku.

However, when Jama and her mother go to the river to do their washing the next day, they are surprised to see the elephants, Lulu, Shaba and Mbegu. Jama decides to confess to her mother that she has been going to the reserve to visit the elephants. Although her mother is disappointed, she is more concerned about Jama's safety. Then the unexpected happens. The elephants move closer to the people at the river and without much warning, Shaba charges. Terrified, Jama begins to run. In the aftermath, life is changed forever for Jama and for Mbegu.

Discussion

The Elephant Girl highlights the issue of illegal poaching and wildlife conservation in Africa, using the story of a fictional young Maasai girl, Jama Anyango who stumbles upon poachers threatening a group of elephants she has been observing. Jama courageously protects a young baby elephant from her villagers who want to kill it in revenge for stampeding and killing her mother. Ultimately her determination and courage set her upon a path that leads to working with rescued elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a real life organization involved in the conservation, preservation and protection of wildlife including the African elephant and black and white rhinos. The Shelfrick Trust was established forty-five years ago and is the most successful elephant orphan rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. It is based in Nairobi, Kenya but also has a field station in Tsavo East National Park. They work along Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenya Forest Service and local communities bordering Kenya's National Parks.

The Elephant Girl also portrays the journey of a young Maasai girl, Jama, who while initially insecure, has big dreams for herself.  Jama wants the same freedom and power as the boys in her own village have; to get an education and to be involved in something that deeply matters to her, in this case, elephants. The authors have crafted a likeable heroine, a girl willing to take risks, demonstrated for example in her returning to the watering hole, in protecting Mbegu the baby elephant in danger, and writing to her great-aunt to tell her about the corrupt practices of Solo Mungu who should be protecting the elephants. Readers will learn a something about Maasai history and culture with the authors having incorporated a few Maasai words into the story.

This well-paced story also highlights the issues of physical abuse through the character of Leku and also trauma and loss with Jama who has already lost her father and then loses her mother in the traumatic accident of the elephant stampede. The novel doesn't get bogged down with either of these issues but the authors have the characters experience them in a way that seems realistic: Leku runs away and attempts to live in the forest, while Jama experiences years of sadness and loneliness over the loss of her family.

What this novel could have incorporated is a map showing the location of Kenya in Africa and also of the Sheldrick Trust and a detailed note about the Maasai. Overall, the colourful cover and engaging story make The Elephant Girl an engaging read for juvenile readers who love animals.

Book Details:

The Elephant Girl by James Patterson and Ellen Banda-Aaku
New York: Jimmy Patterson Books/Little, Brown and  Company      2022
261 pp.