A cross-curricular project
Year Six 2012-13
The Other Side of Truth is a book by Beverley
Naidoo. It describes the journey of two children,
Sade and Femi, as they are forced to leave their
home country of Nigeria and travel to England as
refugees.
Over the past half term Year Six have worked
incredibly hard learning about the characters and plot
of the story and about the geography and history of
Nigeria. Here is a collection of our work: we hope you
enjoy it.
Where is Nigeria?
We looked in the atlases and used globes to find out where Nigeria is. We looked at
maps of different scales and maps which were produced for different purposes. Some
of them showed us the landscape of Nigeria; some showed us the administrative
states and some the major cities.
Olivia’s
fact file
From all the information we
found out, we created a fact file,
all about Nigeria.
Did you know any of these facts
already?
What is life in Lagos like?
Lagos is the largest city in Nigeria, with approximately 16 million residents. We
wanted to know more about what life in Lagos is like. We looked at a variety of
sources, and categorised the information into five categories:
•Climate
•Leisure
•Employment
•Transport
•Housing
We made a wheel all about Lagos!
Click to move on to the next slide,
to find out more about it.
Ceren’s industry
wheel
What are Nigeria’s main industries?
Next we looked at the different
types of industry in Nigeria.
We thought about the main
industries in Nigeria and put them
into three categories.
What do we predict The Other Side
of Truth will be about?
Before we started
reading the book we
took a closer look at
the front cover and the
blurb. Using the clues,
we made predictions
about the setting, plot
and characters.
Jayden
J’s
prediction
Tolga’s
prediction
What is life like in Ibadan?
We wanted to find out more about Ibadan, the city to the north of Abuja, where
Sade and Femi’s parents grew up. We looked at a range of primary and
secondary sources to find out more information.
We pretended that we had visited Ibadan and wrote a postcard about our trip.
We included details about the things we would have seen and done on our visit.
Nixon’s
postcard
How has Beverley Naidoo
effectively opened the story?
The story begins with a dramatic opening scene. It is written in the
present tense to show the urgency and pace of the situation. Below is
Beverly Naidoo’s original story opening. We read it many times and
thought about the powerful metaphors she used, and the effect of these.
Sade is slipping her English book into her schoolbag when Mama screams. Two
sharp cracks splinter the air. She hears her father’s fierce cry, rising, falling.
‘No! No!’
The revving of a car and skidding of tires smother his voice.
Her bag topples from the bed, spilling books, pen and pencil onto the floor. She
races to the verandah, pushing past Femi in the doorway. His body is wooden with
fright.
‘Mama mi?’ she whispers.
Papa is kneeling in the driveway, Mama partly curled up against him. One bare
leg stretches out in front of her. His strong hands grip her, trying to halt the growing
scarlet monster. But it has already spread down her bright white nurse’s uniform. It
stains the earth around them.
A few seconds, that is all. Later, it will always seem much longer.
We had a go at writing our own
story openings. We began by
setting the scene using the past
tense. Then, as the dramatic
scene unfolded, we switched to
the present tense to create a
powerful effect.
Chaneise’s story opening
Sterlyn’s
story
opening
Olivia’s story
opening
Cherry Class wrote diary entries
based on Sade and Femi’s heartbreaking experience.
Alice’s diary entry
Who was Ken Saro-Wiwa?
The Other Side of Truth makes mention of some real-life personages including
the famous political activist and environmental campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa, who
was framed for murder by General Abacha’s government and hanged.
We pretended to be British journalists, outraged by his ‘show’ trial and his
murder.
Alice’s newspaper
article
Solomon’s
newspaper article
Tabitha’s
newspaper article
Tequane’s
newspaper article
What were Sade and Femi’s first
impressions of London?
Arriving in London, Sade and Femi
were struck by the cold, unfriendly
atmosphere. We imagined what they
might have been thinking while sitting
on the 38 bus, on their way to find
their Uncle Dele.
Chaneise’s letter
Solomon’s letter
Kirsty’s letter
What are London’s different tube
lines?
Sade and Femi caught the tube from
Heathrow Airport to Victoria station.
It inspired us to research some more
tube routes!
Daniela and
Darren’s directions
What are the countries which make
up Africa?
‘Then she tried to
remember the names from
the map of Africa above
Papa’s desk. Cameroon
and Chad were next to
Nigeria, but what was to
the east of Chad? Sudan,
Somalia?’
While Sade and Femi wait in the
Immigration Office’s waiting room
Sade tries her best to remember the
geography of her home continent.
We created some maps of Africa
using just a blank outline and an
atlas to help us! It was really tricky
to draw all of the countries in the
correct ratio.
Neo’s map of Africa
Ceren O’s map of Africa
How is Sade bullied at school?
When Sade begins to attend Avon school, she encounters two girls named
Marcia and Donna. They tell Sade to steal a cigarette lighter from her friend’s
family shop, issuing threats against Femi. We imagined that Sade had written
a letter to an agony aunt. We tried our best to give her good advice in our
replies.
Esra’s letter
Amanoor’s letter
Qadir’s letter
Erdem’s letter
Is Papa treated fairly in the UK?
When Papa first arrives in the
UK, he is sent to Heathlands
Detention Centre, where he has
to apply for political asylum.
Jaden LB’s letter
?’s letter
What can we learn from The Other
side of Truth?
Beverley Naidoo dedicated The Other Side
of Truth to Damilola Taylor, saying: “In
memory of Damilola Taylor and to other
young people and their families who seek
new lives in new countries.”
Damilola Taylor was from Lagos. He came
to London to seek a better life, but was
brutally murdered in 2000. Similarly, Sade
and Femi were searching for a better life in
London – but did they find it? The
difficulties which refugees face do not
disappear once they leave their countries:
the stories of Damilola Taylor and of Sade
and Femi prove this.
“In memory of Damilola Taylor and to
other young people and their families
who seek new lives in new
countries.”
We Refugees
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
We read Benjamin
Zephaniah’s Poem
We Refugees. It
inspired us to write
some of our own
poems using a similar
format.
I come from a beautiful place
Where girls cannot go to school
There you are told what to believe
And even young boys must grow beards.
I come from a great old forest
I think it is now a field
And the people I once knew there
Are not there now.
We can all be refugees
Nobody is safe,
All it takes is a mad leader
Or no rain to bring forth food,
We can all be refugees
We can all be told to go,
We can be hated by someone
For being someone.
I come from a beautiful place
Where the valley floods each year
And each year the hurricane tells us
That we must keep moving on.
We can all be refugees
Sometimes it only takes a day,
Sometimes it only takes a handshake
Or a paper that is signed.
We all came from refugees
Nobody simply just appeared,
Nobody's here without a struggle,
And why should we live in fear
Of the weather or the troubles?
We all came here from somewhere.