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Teaching Notes

The Butterfly Heart by Paula Leyden

Synopsis

The Butterfly Heart is a story set in Zambia, Africa. It is told through the voices of Bul-Boo, a thirteen-year-old twin born to a Zambian father and an Irish mother, and Ifwafwa, a man who has a way with snakes and travels around Lusaka (the capital city of Zambia) taking snakes out of people’s homes and freeing them well away from town.

Bul-Boo and her twin sister notice that a school friend of theirs has become very quiet and withdrawn. They eventually find out that she is going to be married off to a man a lot older than she is, and they try to find ways of helping her escape from this fate. They call on Ifwafwa to help them, which he eventually does.

While the story touches on issues such as the practice of child marriage, HIV/AIDS and poverty, it is also filled with stories and folk tales from Zambia, quirky characters (e.g. their friend Fred’s great-granny), friendship, loyalty and the ordinary concerns of young teens. Elements of fantasy are also woven into the story, mainly through Ifwafwa and the eventual resolution of the plot.

The book is aimed at age ten upwards, so is most suitable for use in Years 5 and 6.

Flagged issues

There are a number of issues raised in the book that might be seen as controversial. These are as follows:

• Child marriage

• Bride burning

• The treatment of martyrs

• Witchcraft

The Natural World

• Geography

The Butterfly Heart contains within it a sense of wonder at the natural environment – both through the tales told, as well as through the eyes of Ifwafwa and Bul-Boo.

o The Bangweulu Swamp (p.23): This would make for an interesting environmental study. See attached Appendix A. There is a lot of information online about this wetland area. Could be compared with wetlands in the UK. Bird species could be compared, as well as tree and plant species.

o Dams and Rivers: The story of Nyaminyami is the story of the building of Kariba Dam, which is one of the largest dams in the world. Here the issue of renewable energy could be looked at, as well as the debate about whether dams have positive or negative effects on the natural and human environments. Dams are a very good example of the direct impact of human activity on the environment. Students could look at the Rural Electrification Scheme and dam building on the Shannon. Other possible issues to raise here would be the Suez Canal and the extraction of oil in the Middle East.

o Rain, lightning, thunder: These provide a good opportunity to study different weather patterns around the world. The seasons in Zambia could be looked at in comparison with the seasons in the UK. Issues of relevance here could be changing weather patterns and recent heavy snowfall in the UK.

• Science

o Reptiles: Snakes are central to the story of The Butterfly Heart and always fascinate children. While part of this story deals with a fantastical snake, there are also references to puff adders (p.11, 52 and 77), gaboon vipers (p.65), pythons (p.71) and a green mamba. Could be linked into a visit to a reptile park or zoo. Chameleons also appear in the story (p.113).

o Insect Life: Zambia has an abundance of insect life – some of it is touched on in the story. References are made to the dung-beetle (p.105), scorpions (p.95) and tsetse flies (p.40).

o Plant Life: There are many trees which appear in the story, including the baobab (p.34), pregnant palms (p.39) and the flame tree (p.40). The baobab lends itself to drawing and to discussing legends and myths, as referred to below. It is a valuable tree for considering multiple uses for bark, fruit, seeds, leaves.

o Birds and Bees: The nsolo, or honey guide, is mentioned on p.44 and is a good example of the interdependence of animals and humans. This could be used as an introduction to the problems facing bees – the disappearance of bees caused by lack of diversity in plants and agriculture. There is a good documentary on this that could be used in class. It is called The Silence of the Bees.

Use the following links –

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

(Inside the Hive)

PSHE

Myself and the Wider World

• The Convention of the Rights of the Child: The story’s focus on child marriage would allow for discussion of this convention, particularly:

▪ Article 19 : Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

▪ Article 28 - Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity.

Winifred herself makes reference to the issue of child marriage and education (p.63, 136, 168). Depriving girls of the right to education is one of the issues raised in the campaign against child marriage.

• Amnesty International: The Butterfly Heart has been endorsed by Amnesty International () and Amnesty has extremely useful resources on human rights issues for the classroom. (See .)

• Myself and others: Many different families appear in The Butterfly Heart, but of relevance here would be the twins’ family situation and Winifred’s family. Bul-Boo talks of this contrast – the amount of physical space inside Winifred’s house compared to their own – on p.38. Bul-Boo’s mother’s situation is particularly stark and is spoken about on a number of occasions – p.60, 137, 166. This could provide the basis for a discussion about the role of women in society – in the UK and elsewhere.

Some caution should be exercised here, and there are some issues that teachers may want to approach carefully, such as the situation of Winifred’s mother. In effect, her dead husband’s brother has come into her home and taken the place of his brother. Some teachers may consider these issues too advanced or controversial to examine in class.

• Safety and Protection: Bul-Boo tells the story of her mother and worms on p.45, and while it is humorous, it could be used to discuss issues of safety. I realize barefoot walking is not an issue in the UK (too cold mostly!), but it may be interesting to look at this story as an example of where a parent, who is a doctor herself, flagrantly ignores health warnings and takes risks.

• Traditions: “It was a tradition in China to bind young girls’ feet into lumps of uselessness.” (p.79) Bul-Boo’s comment could provide a good basis for a discussion about traditions – both good and bad.

VISUAL ARTS

• The curriculum emphasises three starting points for a child’s art activity:

o Experience

o Imagination

o Observation

I would suggest that a project on the baobab tree (p.34) would be an excellent way to engage the imagination. The baobab is a beautiful tree and because it sustains so much life it has been given the name The Tree of Life. It could make for a wonderful art project in any of the mediums employed within the curriculum – drawing, painting, printing, clay, construction and fabric.

• If there are students in the class who are from sub-Saharan Africa or anywhere else where they might have seen these trees or eaten their fruit, they could be invited to share their experiences with the class.

English

Themes

The story, told through the voices of a young girl and a much older man, raises a number of themes relevant to students in top primary school and early secondary school.

These include:

• Friendship and loyalty

• Cultural differences

• Ancient traditions and beliefs

• Gender roles

• Death of a parent

• Familial ties

Approach

The novel is not a long one, and while it has two main strands of narration, I do not believe it would be useful to study these in different units, as you would run the risk of losing the sense of the wholeness of the novel and the interdependence of the two strands. What follows below are possible areas for discussion and activities that might assist in the teaching of the book.

• Discussion

There are a number of areas for possible discussion in the book.

o Myths and Legends: Ifwafwa makes reference to a number of myths and legends from Zambia: Nsanguni (p.12 – a mythical creature who lives in the water and devours people’s shadows); Kongamato (p.23 – a mythical flying bird/dragon/dinosaur who swoops from the skies and picks up humans); Kondanamwali (p.34 – a legend about a baobab tree which fell in love with four young maidens and, when they tried to leave, lifted them up into its trunk); and Nyaminyami (p. 118 – a legendary river god said to be trapped by the Kariba Dam). A lesson could be built around how and why myths and legends are created in every culture in the world as ways of explaining the world. Students could compare and contrast UK folk tales with Zambian ones.

o Dual heritage families: Both Bul-Boo and Madillo, as well as Fred their neighbour, come from mixed-race families – Irish/Zambian and English/Zambian. (See p.38 for Bul-Boo’s discussion about being a half and half child – a two hundred per cent child. She asserts, “There’s nothing wrong with half and half, because added together two halves make a whole, just a more interesting one.”)

o Child marriage (Appendix C): There are many resources available on this subject, and it is one that might be discussed with the older classes. References to articles about this topic are on my blog: . Here the teacher can decide the extent to which they discuss this issue depending on their individual class. It is a difficult issue, but a very real one, facing girls around the globe. This is not just an issue in Zambia, it is something that occurs in many parts of the world, and in fact occurs in the UK as well.

Winifred herself speaks about child marriage on p.136 and p.167 and highlights that she will no longer be educated once she is married. In older classes students could write a diary entry, with girls putting themselves into Winifred’s position and boys imagining that they are the brother of someone about to be married while they are still a child.

There is a powerful and moving video available for whiteboard use but some of the images in it are disturbing. It is available on YouTube: . (The Bride Price: Consequences of Child Marriage Worldwide is a video containing moving images by Stephanie Sinclair – recipient of the 2007 UNICEF Photo of the Year award – on the many issues of child marriage. Sinclair's photos include compelling images of child brides in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and India. Sinclair's previous work on child marriage includes a photo essay of Afghani child brides published in The New York Times.)

In addition there are a number of good documentaries that could be used in the classroom by teachers who decide to address this issue. Here are some links:

(A UNICEF TV short video about a young girl in Bangladesh who stood up to child marriage.)

(A short clip of an Ethiopian girl talking about one of the effects of child marriage – not going to school.)

• Descriptive Writing

The following are descriptive phrases, including similes and metaphors, which appear in the book. Create your own descriptive sentences which imitate these ones.

o ‘The creature flew away silently, carrying both of them as if they weighed no more than a flake of ash.’ (p.24)

o ‘It was a tradition in China to bind young girls’ feet into lumps of uselessness.’ (p.79)

o ‘A whirling mass of flame and lightning bolt.’ (p.91)

o ‘The land was dry and thirsty.’ (p.119)

o ‘He has a voice that frightens even the cockroaches.’ (p.135)

o ‘Her hands were like the claws of a bird we’d once rescued.’ (p.157)

o ‘Filled with the fire of hunger. (p.179)

• Vocabulary

Take the following words which appear in the book and look up definitions for each of them in your dictionary, then write these definitions down. Select five of the words and use each of them in a sentence.

o Entice (p.14)

o Phenomenon (p.29)

o Contorted (p.56)

o Diversion (p.84)

o Harmony (p.119)

o Lurking (p.120)

o Countenance (p.140)

o Forsake (p.155)

o Embellishment (p.158)

o Demented (p.198)

o Writhing (p.198)

• Creative

o Write a story set in a baobab tree, from the perspective of a person living in or near it; a bird, bat or bush baby living on it; or as a ghost story.

o Write a story where you have to save a friend from something awful.

o Create your own mythical creature and describe it to someone who cannot see it.

o Write a letter from Bul-Boo’s father to Sister Leonisa on the subject of tapeworms. To do this you will have to look up the life cycle of a tapeworm and demonstrate to Sister Leonisa that, in fact, starving yourself and then offering the tapeworm milk is a ridiculous suggestion! (p.14)

o On p.22 and 23 Bul-Boo talks about Ifwafwa’s bag of snakes. Write a paragraph as a snake describing what it is like inside the bag and what you think of Ifwafwa and the people, like Bul-Boo, who are scared of you.

o On p.91 there is a poem called “Mulberry Juice” – write your own poem about autumn or berry picking.

o Dialogue – Imagine you have just met Ifwafwa, the snake man. Introduce yourself to him and ask him about what he does. Write down the conversation that follows.

o Notebook entry – Bul-Boo has a small notebook called Obuza Ba’s Observations on Life in General that she uses to write down things she notices or observes. At the end of the lesson, write down a sentence about something that has happened in the last week that struck you as interesting. Compare what you have written with what your classmates have written down.

o Some pictures that could be used for essay writing –

[pic] [pic]

Appendix A

Bangweulu Swamps and wetland.

o

Bangweulu Swamps is an enormous wetland wilderness of low islands, reed beds, floodplains and shallow lagoons, situated in the northern part of Zambia. The swamps are found in a shallow depression at the centre of an ancient cratonic platform. The basin is fed by 17 principle rivers from a catchment area of 190,000 square kilometres, but is drained by only one river, the Luapula.

[pic]

Unique to the floodplains of the Bangweulu swamps is the water loving black lechwe, which can gather in herds of up to 10,000, following the floodwaters as they recede during the year. Also found here is the rare antelope, the sitatunga, which lives only in wetland areas. Other antelope in the Bangweulu include oribi, tsessebe, common duiker and reedbuck. Less commonly seen are roan, wild dog and vervet monkeys, as well as smaller more nocturnal mammals such as mongoose and bush pigs. Although rarely seen, leopards do exist while hyenas and jackals are often heard at night and occasionally encountered on night drives. Numerous crocodiles and hippos are found in the permanent water channels or lurking in the papyrus reeds. Buffalo and elephant move into the area when the flood waters have receded to feed on the plentiful grasses.

The bird life here is inspiring. One of the rarest and most elusive birds in Africa, the shoebill stork, which is in fact closer to the pelican family than a stork, favours the Bangweulu Swamps as one of their last remaining habitats. During the early months following the rains, this strange looking bird can regularly be seen on the fringe between the permanent swamps and the floodplains. 

The shallow waters of the floodplains also provide ideal feeding grounds for huge numbers of indigenous birds as well as numerous summer migrants. White and pink backed pelicans, wattled and crowned cranes, white and saddle-billed storks, spoonbills, ibises in flocks numbering in the hundreds and ruff by the thousand are a common but dramatic sight when the waters are rich in small fish, shrimps and snails. The shallow waterlines also abound with ducks, geese, jacanas, pratincoles, Montagu’s and Pallid harriers and occasionally flamingos. 

Other notables are the slaty and black egrets, goliath heron, swamp fly-catcher, marsh tchagra, Fullerborn’s & rosy-breasted longclaws and white-cheeked bee-eater. The ground hornbill and Denham's bustard are also a common sight as they patrol the grassland for large insects. The spectacular malachite kingfisher, speckled mousebirds, marsh whydah, Katanga masked weaver, Luapula & trilling cisticolas, black-collared eremomela & Bohm’s flycatcher may also be seen.

Appendix B

[pic]

Appendix C – UNICEF

Child Marriage

|[pic] |

|© UNICEF/HQ 00-0837/ LeMoyne |

|Adolescent girls at a health centre run by |

|doctors and other health and social workers|

|in the neighbourhood to help adolescent |

|girls gain self-esteem and make more |

|informed decisions. India. |

The practice of girls marrying at a young age is most common in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. However, in the Middle East, North Africa and other parts of Asia, marriage at or shortly after puberty is common among some groups. There are also parts of West and East Africa and of South Asia where marriages much earlier than puberty are not unusual.

It is hard to know the exact number of child marriages as so many are unregistered and unofficial. This said, survey data is available for around 100 countries and show that:

▪ In developing countries, more than 60 million women aged 20-24 were married/in union before the age of 18. Over thirty-one million of them live in South Asia (UNICEF estimates based on MICS, DHS, and other national surveys, 1987-2006).

▪ In countries like Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea, Mali, and Niger more than 60 per cent of women entered into marriage or into a union before their eighteenth birthdays (MICS, DHS, and other national surveys, 1987-2006).

▪ Girls living in the poorest 20 per cent of households are more likely to get married at an early age than those living in the wealthiest 20 per cent. In Peru 45 per cent of women were married by age 18 among the poorest 20 per cent, compared to 5 per cent among the richest 20 per cent (UNICEF estimates based on DHS 2000).

▪ Women with primary education are significantly less likely to be married/in union as children than those who received no education. In Zimbabwe, 48 per cent of women who had attended primary school had been married by the age of 18, compared to 87 per cent of those who had not attended school (UNICEF estimates based on DHS 1999).

Parents choose to marry off their daughters early for a number of reasons. Poor families may regard a young girl as an economic burden and her marriage as a necessary survival strategy for her family. They may think that child marriage offers protection for their daughter from the dangers of sexual assault, or more generally, offers the care of a male guardian. Child marriage may also be seen as a strategy to avoid girls becoming pregnant outside marriage. 

Gender discrimination can also underpin child marriage. Girls may be married young to ensure obedience and subservience within their husband’s household and to maximise their childbearing.

Child marriage can have serious harmful consequences for children, including:

Denial of education: Once married, girls tend not to go to school.

Health problems: These include premature pregnancies, which cause higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. Teenage girls are also more vulnerable to sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS. 

Abuse: This is common in child marriages. In addition, children who refuse to marry or who choose a marriage partner against the wishes of their parents are often punished or even killed by their families in so-called ‘honour killings’.

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