Tengo, a young African American boy is growing up on a farm owned by a white family. Tengo and the farmer’s young nephew, Frikkie are friends and as Tengo and Frikkie get older Tengo starts to notice the difference in the way that he is treated and the way that Frikkie is treated. THese differences are starting to become more and more noticeable as time passes. So instead of being silent and not taking any kind of action Tengo does the opposite and decides to get involved in a student revolution , this revolution is going against the unfair white government and his old friend, Frikkie. This book is about the struggles of these two boys with different opinions, outlooks on life, and the difference in the way they long along with the way they’re…show more content… Tengo and Frikkie have always been treated different but now, Tengo is older and it is more visible to him. There are big differences in Frikkie’s life compared to Tengo’s life, Frikkie has his own room in a big house where he is able to drink tea whereas Tengo shares a dirt floor with four other members of his family and eats his leftovers in the yard. The biggest difference and the one that bothers Tengo the most is that Frikkie attends school for free while Tengo has to pay and Tengo longs for a great education. As Tengo grows more mature he learns that the African Americans in South Africa are not treated fairly and he refuses to remain silent and act as if he didn’t care. So he does what he can with the help of his family to help get equality for everyman and every women no matter the race but, especially for his own race. In Waiting for the rain there’s not a specific date that this book takes place but, with context clues you can figure out it was early 1900’s most likely because of the fact that inequality for African Americans was going on. Also the fact that Tengo and some of his family are looked down upon and treated poorly because of their race or color of their skin also shows the time period and the fact that Tengo is fighting to end Apartheid. The cover also says a lot the boys are wearing modern day clothes so that also helps to give you an idea of the time
