Hawley Students Receive Lesson About African Congo

By Tanjua Damon

Just before a week off, second graders at Hawley School received a lesson about a land far away -- the Democratic Republic of Congo, from a children’s author who lived there when she was a child.

Sanna Stanley, author of The Rains Are Coming and Monkey Sunday, a Story From a Congolese Village, showed the Hawley students slides from Africa, told them what life was like there, and how it was different from life in the United States.

Ms Stanley was born in Oakland, Calif., and when she was five her family moved to Brussels, Belgium to learn French in order to prepare for a move a year later to Zaire. Ms Stanley’s parents were missionaries.

“We moved by ship to Africa,” Ms Stanley said. “The Congo is like one-third of the United States. The Congo is one country in Africa There were 250 different languages.”

To learn more about black history, with February being Black History Month, the school PTA and the Connecticut Commission of the Arts made it possible for Ms Stanley to come to the school and share her experiences. She is a master teaching artist with the commission that provides grant monies so artists can go to schools and share their stories.

Ms Stanley told the students that there are not a lot of places to shop in the Congo, so people go to the market or buy things from their neighbors.

“I was 10 years old before I realized there was a brand name,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of things to buy so we didn’t have a lot of stuff.”

Ms Stanley explained to the students that she was the richest person she knew. Her family had three dogs and she had enough clothes for a week, while other children she knew only had one item of clothing.

When she was in the third grade, her mother taught her in African at school. There were only four students in the entire class, Ms Stanley said. School started at 6 am and went until lunchtime. Since it was so hot, most people took a nap. Then students went back to work until 4 pm.

“Transportation was very different. Walking was the way of transportation for most people,” Ms Stanley said. A truck came through once a week to take people to far away places. But even if a trip took three days, most people walked.

Running water was not available in the Congo. People had to go to the river and carry water back to their homes, according to Ms Stanley. In her family, six people shared the same bath water because carrying the water was a lot of work.

Ms Stanley continues to write children’s books. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Alderson-Broaddus College in West Virginia, a master’s degree in art from Marshall University in West Virginia, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.