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Welcome
to the official website for
A novel by Shelly
Leanne
** Winner, 2004 Fiction Honor Book Award from BCALA **
** 2004 Fiction Book Award Finalist, CT **
** Starred Review from Booklist **
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SHELLY
LEANNE'S
AFRICA
PHOTO
JOURNAL
(and photos of other inspirations behind Joshua's Bible)
Photos Copyright (c) Shelly Leanne, All Rights Reserved.
(Click on the thumbnail to view
the image full size)
Kenya:
Below are photos from my beautiful experience in Kenya,
in eastern Africa, which originally inspired me to write a
novel that portrayed traditional African living. |
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Meticulous
details:
One critic said my novel, Joshua’s Bible, was
"exquisitely researched."
Indeed, I was very picky about details.
I took a boatride from New Jersey to New York, just as
Joshua did, and I made sure to snap photos to get details
about what the USA would have looked like as Joshua departed
by ship on his "reversed middle passage" from
America back to Africa aboard a goods ship.
The Statue of Liberty became symbolic of things to come
for Joshua!
I even bothered to locate a car that would have been
like the one Joshua would have driven in 1934, because the car
he is given in South Africa becomes symbolic of his status as
an "honorary white" in South Africa.
This antique Ford can be found in Port Elizabeth at a
museum for antique cars.
The museum's owner even let me get in! |
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Port
Elizabeth is the second major city that Joshua visits upon
his arrival to South Africa.
Here are some photos. |
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Eastern
Cape.
These are photos of areas of South Africa near Fort
Hare in the Eastern Cape – areas through which my fictional
character Joshua would have driven.
See pages 68-69, among others. |
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Beautiful
trees. One of
the things I loved most about South Africa was its exotic
trees. Take a
look at these wonderful-looking trees. |
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King
William's Town. The
nearest large city near Fort Hare is King William's Town.
Joshua makes many trips there during the novel. |
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Fort
Hare University is the primary setting of the novel.
Fort Hare served as the only sub-Sarahan college
willing to educate black Africans for decades.
President Nelson Mandela was educated there.
Fort Hare remains an important educational institution
today. |
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39
Steps Waterfall.
An important setting in the novel is 39 Steps, where
Joshua goes to pray and to sort out his feelings about his
mission and his growing love for Nongolesi, a Xhosa woman.
I made many allusions to Henry Thoreau's Walden as I
wrote the waterfall scenes.
Look at these beautiful pictures. |
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Transkei.
Joshua takes a drive to the Transkei, in what many of
you have called the most beautiful scene in the novel, pp.
280-286. I traveled to the Transkei to get details that I hoped would
help me recreate the experience of traveling there for you.
Here is one photo. |
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East
London.
East London is also in the Eastern Cape, and this is
where my character, the Brother, lives.
Joshua makes several trips there. |
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Ginsberg.
These are photos of Ginbserg, where many Xhosa were
relocated as a part of segregationist policies that claimed
African traditional land and declared them "whites
only" areas in the 1930s.
Ginsberg was the home of Steve Biko, and is a setting
of Joshua's Bible (pp.352-53 among others). |
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Contents
on this website, unless otherwise indicated, are the property of the
Wilshel Corporation.
Copyright © Wilshel Corporation, 2003, All Rights Reserved. Cover
acknowledgements: Jacket design by Brigid Pearson; Photo of hands by
Wilhelm Scholz/Photonica; Photograph of landscape on cover by Richard
Dobson/GettyImages; Photograph of dove on cover by V.C.L./GettyImages;
Novel cover for Joshua’s Bible printed in USA, Copyright © Warner Books
2003, All Rights Reserved. |
