WITH BOOKS ON HER HEAD

Carrying books on her head is easy for Mieta--in the small Liberian village she has often carried pans, even a coke bottle; but to learn what is inside is a different matter--her father, Clan Chief Mulbah, is opposed to white man's education for girls. Besides, Mieta is promised to an elderly chief who is impatient for her to become his fifth wife. Older brother Zoto, who has been away to high school, undermines superstitious qualms about building the new government school and contrives to win over his father to education for all. Meanwhile the yearly round of clearing land, planting and harvesting goes on with appropriate ceremony. Told with frequent lapses into bush English (which none of the villagers knows), this is plenty good-o in handling the situation, small-small in story