The Child Of Dandelions By Shenaaz Nanji

Journey to Womanhood

“Maturity is when your world opens up and you realize that you are not the center of it.”-M.J. Croan. In the novel entitled The Child of Dandelions, by Shenaaz Nanji, the protagonist undergoes many changes during the course of the plot. From the start of the novel, Sabine was a young naïve fifteen-year old Indian girl, living in a protected and privileged life in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. When Idi Amin, the president of Uganda at the time, announced that all foreign Indians are being expelled out of the country, she thought that her family was safe from the law since they chose to be Ugandan citizens while other Indians remained British. This however, changes when she experienced injustice and racism towards

She uses her ingenuity in order to save the people she loves from destruction. For example, in the chapter Lalita’s Teahouse, Lalita is being treated unjustly by the soldiers who seemingly made a new law and is threatening to arrest her because she tore down President Idi Amin’s photo. Sabine being there sprang up and said: “Aunty, Viram Uncle gave me the photo. I took it to have it framed” (Nanji 69). With Sabine’s quick thinking and creativity, she came up with a convincing lie to counter act the soldiers’ new law and may have prevented Lalitas imprisonment. Another instance of Sabine using her ingenuity is during the chapter, The Raid, where soldiers break into Sabine’s home looking for Sabine’s father. Sabine sends her father into hiding while the soldiers search the house for him. While the soldiers are busy probing her house, “Sabine saw the blue willow dinner plates of half-finshed food on the table. Four plates-had Baobab notice the number? She faked a fall, pulling off the lacy white tablecloth with her. Crash!” (Nanji 125). Once again Sabine’s quick thinking saves her family, without her devising a plan for her father to escape and cover up the evidence that the dinner table was set for four people. The soldiers would have found out that Papa is in the house and that Sabine is hiding him from them which will translate to Sabine and her family to be killed.

Sabine throughout the novel felt like she was the victim of racism and prejudice. However, she later has an epiphany that “she and her family treated the Africans like the untouchables in India” (Nanji 134). Sabine recognized that she is not the only one who is the victim of racism and prejudice and that the Africans as well are victims of discrimination and injustice. A prime example of this is Katana. He used a plastic mug rather than a glass one and could not share their utensils with Sabine’s family. Furthermore, when Sabine is at the Apollo Hotel, she overheard the radio saying that those Indians who do not leave will be sitting on fire, and will not be sitting comfortably. She realized that, “we can’t stay here!” (Nanji 182) meaning Uganda anymore and that they have to leave or else they will be killed just like how Sabine’s uncle was killed. Sabine’s new perspective fully completed her transition from adolescent to