Twenty Chickens for a Saddle
The Story of an African Childhood
Ratings2
Average rating4
A glorious new voice on Africa, Robyn Scott's adventures growing up in Botswana in a loving but eccentric family will be one of the season's most talked-about memoirs Robyn Scott's story of moving at the age of seven to Botswana with her adventure-seeking parents is described by Alexander McCall Smith as "beautifully written" and "acutely observed. " It is that and more. Twenty Chickens for a Saddle is an exquisitely rendered portrait of Africa, and of childhood, written by an astonishing new talent. The Scotts are truly one of the most unusual families you are likely to meet. Robyn's father is a flying doctor who always wanted to be a vet. Her mother believes in holistic medicine and homeschooling. Both are deeply eccentric, and under their affectionate but relaxed guidance, life for the children is a daily adventure of the kind usually confined to storybooks. Storybooks-or being read to from them-comprise, it turns out, most of their homeschooled education. That, and searching the surrounding bush for animals (poisonous and otherwise) to let loose in their schoolroom. As a result of the absolute freedom of spirit, thought, and movement that they are given, all three children grow into fascinating, if rather eccentric, characters in their own right. When the family moves to a game farm bordering South Africa, the children become more aware of the darker undercurrents of life in Africa. Here the apartheid mind-set lives on in many of their white South African neighbors. And when at fourteen Robyn begins conventional school in neighboring Zimbabwe, she sees more of the racism initially only glimpsed in Botswana. AIDS also rears its head. Long witnessed by Robyn's father at his village clinics, the existence of the disease is acknowledged by the government too late-only as death, on an unprecedented scale, begins to devastate this peaceful and prosperous African country. Robyn Scott is an extraordinarily gifted writer and storyteller. Like the witch doctors who compete with her father for patients, she weaves a spell from the start. Her funny, moving memoir, told with clear-eyed unsentimental affection, is about an idyllic childhood and a family's enthusiasm for each other and the world around them, with the essence of Africa-both beautiful and challenging- infusing every page.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
As the blurb says, this is the story of the childhood of Robyn Scott, her brother and sister and family in Botswana. From moving there when she was six, homeschooled by her mother, with her father operating a flying doctor service, to her high schooling in Zimbabwe across the border.
With grandparents already established in Botswana, they move in with eccentric Ivor, renovating an old cowshed to become their home. While ostensibly the story of Robyn's childhood, the story encompasses the whole extended family, the challenges and successes, and the coming of AIDS to Botswana, and her fathers efforts to assist his many patients who are HIV positive.
The book, while 450 pages in length, is an unchallenging read, mostly linear and largely anecdote based. It is hilarious in some places and at least amusing for its entirety. While others found the narrative lacked ‘action' and ‘excitement', I appreciated that the story didn't read as embellished to add these factors when there was no need.
The title refers to her parents challenging her to raise money to contribute to the new saddle Robyn wanted for her horse. It was the first of her money making ventures, where she bought twenty chickens who had completed their year at the battery farm, and coxed another year of eggs from them free-range, and sold them to the white expats. In high school she brought stationery from Botswana to sell in Zimbabwe where the quality was far inferior, at a reasonable markup.
Overall a worthwhile read, with lots of detail about Botswana and the development of the AIDS epidemic. A cast of interesting characters within and outside the family.
4 stars
