Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale

This presentation provides a summary and analysis of the book Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe. It explores the plot, characters, genre, and cultural aspects of the story. The presentation also discusses the benefits of the book for students and its potential classroom applications.

Multicultural
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Multicultural
Mufaros beautiful daughters

 Title: the title of the book is Mufaro beautiful
daughter: an African tale.
 Author: John Steptoe
 Illustrator and photographer; John Steptoe
 Number of pages : 28
 Year of publishing: Lothrop, lee and
Shepard's books in 1987.
 Theme: kindness has a reward over cruelty.
About the book

 Culture of the story is inspired by African
traditional story .
 illustrations are in details and shows how
the cloths they dressed looked like.
 It shows how they travelled
 What kind of plants they grow
 Types of animals lives in the area.
Culture

 Mufaro the old man with two daughters
 Manyara the elder daughter
 Nyasha the younger son
 King plans to marry the daughters
 Nyasha becomes the Queen,
 Manyara becomes the servant to nyasha.
Plot

 Genre of the book: fiction
 Tags and themes: Allison henry, award book
, family, culture, picture, book , fiction 2-3,
4-5 .
 The book is about children literature.
 Version is African tales
 The setting is historical and heritage is
African
 The book is about self enhancement and
morality.
Genre of the book

 Mufaro beautiful daughters is a short story. It talks
about Nyasha the nice and humble sister
and ,Manyara the bad tempered and selfish sister.
 One day the king sent out a message that he is
looking for a wife and decent woman who will be
reporting to the palace.
 Manyara sneaks out of the house at night to be the
first woman to meet the king.
 Nyasha follows in the morning with her father to
meet the king.
 Fortunately, the king recognized nyasha as the kind
person worth to be his wife.
Description

 Mufaro who lives in a small village in Africa.
 Manyara and Nyasha, outward beautiful with
different characters.
 His eldest daughter, Manyara, is selfish, mean-
spirited and unkind to her younger sister.
 To her younger sister Nyasha, who is beloved for her
patience and generosity
 King – the ruler of the community.
 Nyoka –a friend to Nyasha, the same old woman and
hungry boy in the journey.
 Messenger –the sender of message from the palace
to the people in the community
Character

 In a certain village there lived a family of Mufaro.
 Mufaro had two daughters beautiful but with different
characters
 Mufaro is loves his two daughters Manyara and Nyasha and he
is proud of all.
 Manyara is very selfish and jealous whereas Nyasha is
very humble and caring.
 Manyara tells Nyasha that one day she will be a queen and
manyara will be her servant.
 Jealous is expressed by manyara claiming that Nyasha is loved
by all people including her father.
 She goes to the house to rest with bitterness as Nyasha goes
to farm in the garden.
Summary

 In the farm nyasha is very hardworking , fortunately she
comes across a little snake called Nyoka sleeping near
his crops.
 Nyasha welcomes Nyoka hoping that nyoka will help her
in destroying pests on her plants.
 Nyasha comes closer to her friend Nyoka with songs and
opens up to her friend about her loneliness.
 There father coming back shows happiness after seeing
his daughters
 He asks the elder daughter what she did during the day,
and she lied she worked in her younger sisters farm.
 Nyasha the younger sister because of care knows her
sisters lies and decides not to tell her father the truth.
Summary of the book

 One day a messenger is sent to there house with news
from the king.
 From the message the king is looking for a wife and
invites all the beautiful daughters in the land to meet
him in the palace.
 Manyara the elder daughter shows a deep interest in
being kings wife.
 Other village girls are excited and shows interest as well.
 Nyasha decides to go to the farm, while singing from the
farm the messenger hears the voice and insist to go with
him to the palace.
 Nyasha asks permission from his father before going to
meet the king.
Cont.

 Manyara insists Nyasha her younger sister should remain
at home.
 She states her sister should not abandon his father alone.
 However, Mufaro there father insists on all his daughters
meeting the king the following day.
 Manyara sneaks out of the house in the night to be the
first girl to see the king.
 In the morning her younger sister accompanied with her
father meets the king in the palace.
 in the palace with the King, Nyasha is recognized as the
most humble to be the Queen.
 Nyasha is recognized as the most kind and worth to be a
king.
Cont.

 This story is beneficial to students because
it will help them know how to pronounce
some African words in the text.
 The illustration in the study is detailed and
takes the whole set of pages.
 They can be seen in colored in pencil
 The book is a book of honor.
 The students can compare and contrast two
sisters and discuss how the interact with
each other.
Benefits to students

 It can be used in social sciences lesson on
African cultures.
 From the front cover the writer of the book
states that the story is based of a fork tale.
 the illustrations are based on ancient ruins
found in Zimbabwe.
 It is important in that it can be used to
teach social emotional standards.
Classroom applications

 This story is based on African fork tales.
 The illustration is based off ancient ruins found
near Zimbabwe.
 Also it can be used in the African culture as a
unit to empower students and inject some
knowledge in them.
 It talks about farming where Nyasha kept a
small plot of land which she had
sunflowers ,millet and yams and vegetables.
 In this story the illustrations are in details and
shows how the cloths they dressed looked like.
Language and Integration of
culturally

 Mufaro’s close relationship with Nyasha helps
kept his family intact.
 Manyara’s relationship with Nyasha created a
family conflict .
 The king’s position allows him to keep harmony
in his community.
 Messenger, acts as a bridge between the King
and community.
 Nyoka creates a sense of friendship and
belongingness in the short story.
 Nyoka is also a friend advisor to the king.
Power of relationship between
characters

 Merchant, G., Mayo, M., Young, S., Medearis,
A. S., Vitale, S., French, V., Paul, K., ...
Steptoe, J. (1995). Traditional stories.
Leamington Spa: Scholastic.
Reference