MPHO'S DREAM
SANDRA LEE BRAUDE
language
(SANDRA LEE BRAUDE, Oct. 19, 2014)
MPHO'S DREAM tells the story of Mpho Mapanga, once homeless and hungry on the streets of Johannesburg. (cf MPHO'S DREAM (OUP).When apartheid came to an end, Paulus Mapanga (Mpho's father) returned from exile to his home country, South Africa. Now father and son live together.Paulus, working for the government to develop homes for his people, travels to the Cape with Mpho. There the youngster sees more of the realities of life, and there he falls in love, for the first time, with Trish, a young white girl.Back in Johannesburg, where he attends the Golden Grove School, he has to come to terms with his emotions, his love, a bully, and the fact that his best friend, Themba, has been diagnosed as positive with HIV.Mpho will do everything he can to help his friend. He has a dream - not unlike that of Martin Luther King - that he will become a scientist, and find a cure for HIV and Aids.MPHO'S DREAM is a story of development through adolescence, a time of great importance to young people.