When the Ground is Hard is a YA novel set in Swaziland in the 1960s, (now known as eSwatini), mainly at the Keziah Christian Academy, a boarding school for mixed-raced children. The author was born in Swaziland before moving to Australia in the 1970s and in fact attended the school herself along with many of her family members.

Eswatini is one of the smallest countries in Africa and is landlocked by South Africa and Mozambique to the north. Swaziland was a British high commission territory from 1903 to 1968, when it regained independence. Eswatini is the only absolute monarchy in Africa, currently ruled by King Mswati III. The majority of the population are Swazis and speak Swazi (siSwati). Swaziland did not officially have the legal Apartheid system as in South Africa but as a British protectorate there were strongly entrenched divides and economic differences between the racial groups with oppression and disenfranchisement being routine.

The main character in the book is teenager Adele Joubert, who lives with her mixed raced mother and brother Rian in Swaziland, with occasional visits from her white father who lives in South Africa with his wife and other family. In a school where the children are ranked according to wealth and colour, Adele is used to being one of the popular and powerful girls at school along with her friend Delia and “The Pretties.” She is disheartened and ashamed to find her position supplanted by a wealthier, whiter girl. She is forced to sit at the back of the bus next to Lottie Diamond, who she looks down on as poor and low class. With time the brave and fiesty Lottie challenges Adele to rethink her views on a system that treats people differently according to race and money rather than their actions. The two girls bond over reading Jane Eyre and stand together against bullies and hardships. Adele slowly learns to understand and appreciate her black roots.

The title comes from a beautiful African proverb “When the ground is hard, the women dance,” giving us a spark of hope in times of suffering. I really enjoyed this YA novel and think it would make a great class read. ( )

Representation: Biracial main character, Black main character
Trigger warnings: Physical abuse, death of a child

7.5/10, this was another amazing book by Malla Nunn, she definitely deserves the award she got, she earned it, previously I read Sugar Town Queens by the same author which I enjoyed more than this however this was a delightful book with its positives outnumbering its flaws so where do I even begin? I really liked the dynamic between Adele and Lottie, they make a great pair together, despite their differences, and they get along most of the time. I liked Adele because she experienced character development (turning from a girl with a sense of inflated ego to a rebel who can stand up for herself), which is always a good thing in books. These characters lived hard lives, just because they were biracial, and had to experience a lot of racism but they still managed to overcome that, showing their resilience. Definitely recommended if you want a historical novel with well-made characters and dynamics. ( )

A mixed race girl, Adele, who was always been in the popular group, has been nudged out of the group & must share her dorm room and school year with a poor girl who’s always the butt of everyone’s gossip and ill will. Through good times (reading Jane Eyre together) & bad (enduring the popular girls’ bullying), they become best friends. As frustrating as Adele is at the beginning of the book, I think she is described perfectly—what I think her reality was like always trying to fit into the popular crowd. And we see her growth to a beautiful dynamic ending that I don’t think you can fully appreciate unless you listen to the audiobook. I learned a lot about the racism in Swaziland and what life must be like there. Recommended. ( )

Adele is popular in the Keziah Christian Academy in Swaziland, where your standing is a combination of the color of your skin and your economic status. Adele is lucky: she is mixed race with a white father , who pays full fees. She is able to afford new clothes and treats; however, she arrives late to the bus to return for the school year, and is humiliated to sit in the back with the lower caste (poor and/or black natives.) A new Portuguese girl has taken her place with the popular girls (the "pretties") and she finds herself partnered with Lottie, who is dirt poor, wild and carefree, and has no interest in seeking a station on the school's social ladder. The two girls from what seem to be completely different backgrounds are forced together, and quiet Adele grows in many ways, learning much from Lottie's sense of justice, service, and compassion. A classic YA novel from Nunn, whose detective series is also excellent, with the added bonus of understanding more about Africa and its many diverse cultures. ( )

This 2019 winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for young-adult literature is set in 1960s Swaziland [officially renamed in 2018 to the Kingdom of eSwatini]. Adele Joubert, 16, attends the Keziah Christian Academy, a school for mixed-race students the author based on one attended by her mother, aunt, and grandmother, and which the author herself attended before emigrating to Australia when she was fourteen.

The world of Keziah is a microcosm of the country itself, rigidly divided by color (and gradations of color), wealth, and social status. In an interview, the author explained:

"I needed to write about what was actually important in our experience. . . . The caste system, for people like me who were multiracial, was microclassified.”

You had to find your own way, she clarified in the interview, by importing whatever powers you could.:

"Those with money were considered a cut above and given fawning respect while poverty was treated as a self-inflicted injury. Light skin was preferable to dark skin. The laws made that clear. But even then, being a light-skinned biracial person meant that you were second best when compared to the white ruling class."

In the novel, Adele lamented that white people, classified as “European,” were “the kings and queens of everything.” Her mother told her to be grateful for the European genes in her that gave her curly but not kinked hair, and green eyes. Indeed, these traits helped confer social status on Adele.

Adele’s father, who was a white engineer, lived with his white family in Johannesburg. He did call Adele and her mother every week however, and visited them occasionally. He also provided the money for Adele to attend Keziah.

Adele had a best friend at Keziah, Delia, who was one of the “pretties,” the most popular girls. Popular girls even had a cadre of “pets” - younger female students who admired them and catered to them. But this year, Adele found that Delia was no longer interested in her; her place in Delia's circle was taken by Sandi Cardoza, a new student from a wealthy family whose parents were married, which granted her higher status than other girls, certainly more than Adele. Adele also learned she would no longer be rooming with Delia; rather, she would be thrown in with Lottie Diamond, a "reject" who was half-Jewish, quarter-Scottish, and the rest pure Zulu, and who was from an impoverished background. Lottie had worn-out shoes, a faded school uniform, and actually spoke her mind instead of saying only what was expected. Adele felt humiliated and furious to have been dumped, and to be stuck with “a girl from the bush.”

Adele could not complain, however; the system was set, and the administrators were harsh and punitive. Complaints or infractions earned the girls unpleasant work details and/or physical punishments. Students reflected the system by engaging in physical fights of their own to settle insults.

Adele had some solace; her father gave her a [used, of course] book to take with her to school: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. She started reading the book, and Lottie did too - at first surreptitiously, and then, after Adele found out, they started to read it together, alternating reading it aloud to each another. In this way, as well as in their shared status as rejects and victims of vicious gossip and nasty pranks, they began to bond. A fire and a death at the school cemented their relationship further.

Adele learned much more from living with Lottie than she did from lessons or from anyone else at the Keziah Academy. Lottie never compromised herself and her integrity in order to be accepted; acceptance was never really an option for her in any event. Adele, having internalized what society taught her was most valuable, faced great hurdles in overcoming her beliefs about race and class, and to behaving in a way that she knew in her heart was both more honest, and morally superior to how she had lived before.

Evaluation: This excellent and moving story has so much to offer in terms of a view into other societies and other ways of understanding the world. Highly recommended! ( )