Naomi Maina's 'Taji: The Lost Heir' reimagines African children as kings, queens and leaders [Courtesy]
Author Naomi Maina penned Taji: The Lost Heir to give African children a story that they could see themselves in and feel proud of who they are.
Set in the Taita Hills and the highlands of Murang’a, the children’s novel revolves around Taji, a young girl raised by her adoptive mother, Lala, in Taita.
Immersed in the Taita cultural traditions, she later discovers she is the princess of a royal family in Murang’a. She was separated from her biological family during devastating floods when she was a young child.
Lala, a Giriama woman, found the frightened child clinging to a tree and looked for her family to no avail. She returned to Taita with the child and raised her as her own. She named her Taji, meaning “the people”, because she believed the child belonged to all those who loved her.
