Jeevanjee: Rebel of the Empire

14 year old Teshi reviews Jeevanjee, Rebel of the Empire by Zarina Patel. The book is designed to open up the eyes of young readers to this beautiful country of ours, and it most certainly achieves the goal.

Teshi shares: In my opinion Jeevanjee: Rebel of the Empire can be classed under two book genres as it tells the story of a man’s growth to his later position as a fighter for independence in Kenya and also tells of the more political and industrial side of Kenya’s growth as a country before independence. The story is told from the point of view of a young Kenyan girl, and she tells the story to her older cousin.

As a Kenyan, what surprised me most in this book was the lengths our colonisers went to to put us down as a country. For not only did they constantly demoralize and abuse us as we are told in our history lessons but they also found us to be dispensable. We are often told of the MauMau and the Kenyan freedom fighters but are told little about the fight of others who found themselves living in our beautiful country. That there was also a political fight for our country and there are those who fought without violence and war.  It was surprising to me how much of my own history I didn’t know about and this book has inspired me to learn so much more. The book is more than just the story of one man, it is the story of all of us and how our wonderful capital city was formed.

Teshi is a student based in Nairobi who loves books and the stories they hold within.

#KeReads #HadithiZetu