Introduction

Children’s literature is a useful instrument for imperialists as they preserve their faith in their imperial agendas. Stories for the young appear innocent, unconnected with the violence of political and cultural domination. However, these stories are largely improvisations on the Western notion that there exists a “white man’s burden,”1 a concept reinforced when fi ctional African characters are depicted in children’s books as incapable of self-determination. White children absorb this myth easily from educational professionals and see no reason to doubt their own alleged superiority. By keeping the white supremacy myth alive in children’s books, the inequalities experienced in real life by children of color are supported. Even a belief in the inevitability of inequality may take hold in young minds (Cashmore and Troyna, 189). One thing is certain: following a colonial conquest, “patterns of inequality persisted for generation after generation” (Cashmore, 85).2