YAOUNDÉ BABA SCARED?....ME?....NO WAY! , livre ebook

YAOUNDÉ BABA SCARED?... ME?... NO WAY!
Teddy Magona
YAOUNDÉ BABA SCARED?... ME?... NO WAY!


A TALE


Translated from the French by Patricia and Frank Lain
Illustrations by Mireille Magona


LES ÉDITIONS DU NET
126, rue du Landy 93400 St Ouen
Original French Title :
Y AOUNDÉ B ABA
M ÊME PAS PEUR !


Published in French by Les Éditions du Net (France) 2015

© Les Éditions du Net, 2017
ISBN : 978-2-312-05439-1
1 - Children around the world
Hello and welcome to all my young readers and friends. I would like to tell you the amazing story of a truly remarkable little boy. The story began a long time ago in a far-away country. Many years have passed since then and very few people remember it – even my own memory is a bit hazy. I am not so sure I can recall all the twists and turns of his incredible adventure. Neither am I confident that I will be able to give an accurate account of all the misadventures of the very strange creature at the centre of this story.
This fearless little boy, though, has not forgotten anything of his fantastic journey and so I have asked him to tell you about his eventful expedition himself.
First of all let us ask him to introduce himself.
"Hi, my name is Y AOUNDÉ B ABA . I am a little boy and I live with my parents, P À my dad, M À my mum and A ÏDA my little sister. We live in a village of little huts at the bottom of a wide valley. Because of where our homes are and because of what they are like my village gets its name: the village of Little Huts in the Valley.
It doesn’t get frosty in my village and it doesn’t snow either. It’s never cold. The sun shines brightly in the sky all day long. Where I live it’s hot, very hot all year round. My home is a land of sun and heat.
It’s so nice to be able to play and have fun wearing just a pair of shorts – head, arms and legs bare. It’s just great to be able to run, jump and dance without the bother of too many clothes. It’s so good to feel the gentle heat of the sun caressing your bare skin.
My skin is black, as black as M I -A OU ‘s fur. That’s the cat that belongs to my grandmother – G RAND M À . But of course I realise you don’t know G RAND M À ’s little cat. So how can I describe myself? I would say my skin is black, a beautiful coffee colour.
In the valley everyone has this nice dark skin: G RAND M À , G RAND P À my granddad, M À my mum, P À my dad, A ÏDA my little sister, Aunty Z ÏA , Uncle Zïo, Mr Y ANGO the head of the village, my friend B UMBA and all the other people here. Because dark pigmentation doesn’t absorb the intense rays of the sun so much it protects us from burning.
My hair is black and curly. It’s frizzy with lots of little tight curls. This is normal for people in hot countries. Why do we have frizzy hair? That’s because this kind of hair protects our heads from the burning rays of the sun.
I have big, brown eyes, hazel eyes. This colour helps me against the brilliant light of our sunniest days. It also gives my eyes more protection from the blinding light of the setting sun."
"P À , my dad, has told me that people who live far away across the sea don’t have black skin. They have white skin, pretty, creamy-white skin like the shells of some of the eggs from M À ’s hens.
Over there across the sea the sun doesn’t burn like here. It gives a much more gentle heat. So you don’t have to protect yourself as much. That’s why the people there, where the sun is not so intense, have white skin. Fair skin is sensitive to the smallest amount of sunshine.
If these people expose themselves to the sun their skin will quickly change colour, get darker and turn brown. They will have a tan. Then their skin will be a lovely, healthy caramel colour. All the same, P À told me that if they spend too long in the sun they will get sunburnt. The sun will burn their skin. Skin that is burnt hurts, it hurts a lot and will never be a nice black colour, or soft and smooth like mine.
P À also told me that the children have cheeks and fine lips that are a pale pink colour. However, when they are anxious or embarrassed their cheeks and faces turn red. This is called ‘blushing’ and is caused by the emotion that they are feeling.
According to the intensity of the sun’s light where these people live, their eye colour varies. Some have beautiful brown eyes. Others have eyes that are blue like the ocean. Some even have eyes that are a light green colour like the young leaves of a banana tree.
Their hair, which is longer and softer than frizzy hair, is brown or red like carrots or even fair like corn.
They have a season when the sun shines but doesn’t warm up the air. Without this warmth from the sun they feel cold. They call this cold season winter. In winter they have to wear warm clothes so they put on long coats and fur-lined boots to keep out the cold.
When the blue sky disappears and the sky turns a milky-white, the temperature drops. The cold makes little flakes like cotton wool fall from the sky. They call this snow. White snowflakes cover the whole countryside. The whole place turns completely white from the ground to the sky, totally white.
The children get very excited and find new games to play. They have a great time making slides down snowy slopes and having friendly snowball fights.
Children love the snow. They are good at making snowmen all out of snow. To make their snowman look more real they tie a big woollen scarf around his neck and use a carrot for a long nose so it looks red from the cold."
"M À , my mum, told me about another country, even further away than the first one. This is a country where it’s really freezing cold. Brrr! I shiver just thinking about it!
In this country the ground is always covered with frozen snow. There are no bushes or trees or forests. There are no fields and not a single blade of grass. No sweet-smelling flowers, no buzzing bees gathering pollen, no colourful butterflies. With no birdsong it is a world of silence.
In this place of intense cold, day doesn’t follow night. There is just one long interminable night which goes on and on through the seasons.
In order to survive the icy cold, people are always dressed in thick fur coats. This way they are well protected from the freezing temperatures. The cold doesn’t reach their fingers in their gloves or their well wrapped up toes.
These people don’t live in huts or houses. Buildings like this would be no good in the tough polar climate. They live in homes which they build out of blocks of frozen snow. They are called igloos. They can live comfortably in these homes as they protect them from the extreme cold, the icy winds and the very heavy snowfalls.
When they go out on the icy, snowy wastes they travel on ‘sledges’ which have no wheels or steering wheels but are pulled by a team of huskies.
The people have small, kindly eyes which are quite narrow, like when you screw up your eyes so that the bright sunshine doesn’t blind you.
Why do they have such cute little slanted eyes? These sensitive eyes protect them from the intense reflection of the sun on the vast snow-covered stretches of land. These almond-shaped eyes help them to reduce the luminosity and also to cope with the strong winds which blow across the icy wastes."

Mother Nature has been very clever! Whether in hot countries, temperate regions or in lands where it is extremely cold, everywhere in the world people adapt to the conditions. Our world is a world of diversity. According to latitude, climate and environment people live, behave and think differently. Their way of life is different if they live across the sea or if they live in a very cold country or if they live in the warmth of a valley of little huts.
Nonetheless, wherever they may be, all parents here, there or far away love their children in the same way. They all cherish them and love them tenderly.
Children, no matter where they live, no matter whether their skin is white or black, or they have almond-shaped eyes, all children all over the world love to laugh, jump, dance and have fun. When evening comes they will ask their mother for a big cuddle as they go off to bed. They will ask their father for a last little goodnight kiss.
All these children will fall asleep quietly content, dreaming of the new games they will enjoy the next day and looking forward to more fun.
Now it’s your turn
- What is the little boy’s name? Explain what you have learned about him.
- Why do some people have black skin, some white skin and certain others almond-shaped eyes?
- Tell Y AOUNDÉ B ABA who you are. Do you live in a hot country, in a mild climate or an extremely cold country? Tell him a bit about yourself so that he can get to know you better.

2 – A boy called Yaoundé Baba
In the large communal meeting hut the atmosphere was warm and the talk lively and friendly. As usual, the adults were enthusiastically discussing serious issues to do with the life of the village…..
And the discussion in the hut was so animated that the busy beating of tiny wings could hardly be heard - an irritating noise which came from a mosquito searching for a likely prey. The bloodthirsty little insect was looking for something different to eat and flew around the hut looking for the next victim. It made for A