We Are All The Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love [Paperback]

Jim Wooten (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2004

The extraordinary story of the little South African boy whose bravery and fierce determination to make a difference despite being born with AIDS has made him the human symbol of the world's fight against the disease, told by the veteran American journalist whose life he changed.

Five million more people contracted HIV last year alone. We've all seen the statistics, and they numb us; on some level our minds shut down to a catastrophe of this scope. As with other such immense human tragedies in the past, it can take the story of one special child's life to make us open our minds and our hearts.

While the majority of all AIDS cases occur in Africa, a South African boy named Nkosi Johnson did not become "an icon of the struggle for life," in Nelson Mandela's words, because he was representative but because he was so very remarkable. Everyone who met Nkosi Johnson was struck by his blinding life force, his powerful intelligence and drive, his determination to make something of his short life. By the time of his death, the work he had done in his eleven years on earth was such that The New York Times ran his obituary on the front page, as did many other papers, and tributes appeared on the evening news broadcasts of every major network.

Nkosi Johnson did not live to tell his own story, but one writer whose life he changed has taken up the work of telling it for him. Luckily for the world that writer is Jim Wooten. In his hands, We Are All the Same is a powerful testament to the strength of the human spirit, even as it bears witness to the scope of the tragedy that is unfolding in Africa and around the world, cutting down millions of boys and girls like Nkosi Johnson before they can reach their promise. Written with the brevity and power of a parable, We Are All the Same is a book that is meant to be read by all of us, of all ages and walks of life. Its beginning and ending are terribly sad, but in the middle is the extraordinarily inspiring story of a very unlucky little boy who said, Never mind. I'm going to make my life matter. And he did.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author, an award-winning senior correspondent for ABC News, has written an extraordinarily moving account of a courageous South African boy's battle with AIDS that is also a scathing indictment of South African leaders who have failed to confront the AIDS epidemic in their country. Nkosi, born in 1989 in the former Zululand, was infected by his poverty-stricken mother, Daphne. As Wooten recounts, Daphne moved heaven and earth to insure that her son would be provided for after her own death and agreed to his adoption, at age three, by Gail Johnson, a white South African, who had met Nkosi at a hospice. A hero in her own right, Johnson nourished Nkosi's strong spirit, which gave out only when he died at the age of 12. Before then, Johnson and Nkosi traveled internationally to gain support for Nkosi's Haven, a home for women and children with AIDS in South Africa. Looking at the larger picture, Wooten points out that Nelson Mandela refused to deal with the AIDS crisis because he was embarrassed to speak publicly about sex (a position he later said he regretted). Mandela's successor, Thabo Mkebi, has also hampered attempts to get antiretroviral drugs to AIDS victims, absurdly denying that the virus HIV exists. According to Wooten, 20% of South African girls are currently infected with HIV and 7,000 infants die of AIDS each month. This powerful account puts a human face on a catastrophic epidemic that grows worse daily.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In 1989, the year that Mandela was released from prison, a Zulu baby named Nkosi was born HIV-positive to a teen single mother dying of AIDS. Wooten, ABC News senior correspondent, tells Nkosi's family story of hope and heartbreak in a clear dramatic narrative that personalizes the apartheid politics as well as the present devastating statistics and the struggle against prejudice. At age 2, the sick little boy was taken in by a loving white family, and with the support of his activist foster mother, Gail, he became a famous public figure in the battle against discrimination. He won the legal right to attend school. At 11, shortly before he died, he gave an electrifying speech to an international audience. Wooten gets close to the dying child and his white family, and he writes passionately about Gail's fight and about President Mbeki's absurd denial that has enraged the health profession. Most haunting is the breakup of black family life stretching back across generations, the desperation of the teen who gets AIDS and gives it to her son. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The; 1ST edition (November 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594200289
• ISBN-13: 978-1594200281
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #27 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Disorders & Diseases > AIDS

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heroes, Angels and Demons?, December 6, 2004

By 

H. F. Corbin "Foster Corbin" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: We Are All The Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love (Paperback)

When I read this poignant book, I wondered as to how some people seem to get it-- in this instance Gail Johnson who crossed class and race lines to care for Nkosi Johnson, the young Zulu boy who died at the age of 12 with AIDS-- and others either cannot or do not want to get it-- here I refer to President Mbeki of South Africa, Mandella's sucessor, who believes that an "omnipotent apparatus" is using AIDS as an instrument of genocide against black Africans. These instruments are pharmaceutical companies, scientists, physicians, medical researchers and Western goverments.

The author of this book, Jim Wooten of ABC News, says that he is writing "about the relationship between a black child who never grew up and a white woman who never gave up. It has neither a happy ending nor even a promising beginning, for the child had no choice and no chance, and the woman knew all along what she was up against." Like the current U. S. deficit, the numbers of AIDS cases in Africa, or anywhere else for that matter, have very little impact on us. They are so large and impersonal. But the story of the courageous young Nkosi puts a face on the pandemic and in a small way brings it home to all of us. As the youngster said so eloquently: "We are all the same."

Both Nkosi and his adopted mother-- she actually did not adopt him legally and, according to Wooten, made every effort to see that he maintained a relationship with his birth family-- were heroes of the first order. (I kept wishing as I read this book in one setting that Wooten had provided the reader with a photograph of Ms. Johnson. I wanted to put a face on Nkosi's adopted "angel" mother.") It is sad to learn that Nelson Mandela, certainly one of the world's heroes, did not speak out against AIDS as he could have while he was president because he was uncomfortable discussing sex. I would nominate the president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, as an unusual hero too who did use his position to speak out about AIDS and when faced with opposition by the Catholic archbishop of the use of condoms by Uganda citizens to curb the spread of AIDS simply said to the archbishop: "'Your Eminence, shut up!'" According to the president, that's precisely what the archbishop did. He shut up. Finally Wooten is to be commended for breaking the rules of journalism and becoming emotionally involved as he fell under the spell of this young boy. If you read this fine story-- and certainly this is a great book for this season-- you will not soon forget Mr. Wooten's lying down beside the dying boy to say his own goodbyes.

This remarkable story of courage and love will warm your heart.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars achingly lovely, December 19, 2004

By 

Alexandra Scott "lexy60" (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Are All The Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love (Paperback)

Mr. Wooten has crafted a story of extraordinary elegance and simplicity. I can only imagine what a formidable task it was for him to attempt to convey the strength, purity and valour of this one fragile, brave boy in a sea of pain and despair. One is left with both a sense of unspeakable grief at the cruelty of a cold and uncaring world and the light of hope; if one small child and one determined woman can move the mountains of ignorance then there may redemption for us all. I challenge anyone to read this book and not be profoundly altered.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Story Of Young Boy's Extraordinary Courage, January 1, 2005

By 

G. Reid (Roseland, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: We Are All The Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love (Paperback)

This is a moving story about AIDS. In some areas of southern Africa the life expectancy has been cut in half. The hero of this book is a little boy born in South Africa. His growth was stunted by pediatric AIDS. He lived for 12 1/2 years before he passed away. The author met this little boy who had a wonderful sense of humor. The theme of his life is that he was a "normal" boy. He had a huge infectious smile that everyone loved. This little boy fought for the right to go to school and won that right for himself and others.

In Africa AIDS is a heterosexual disease and a childrens disease. This little boy, Nkosi, fought for the rights of all persons with AIDS. Nkosi had tremendous courage and his mantra was to do all he could in the time he had. He was even the keynote speaker at a major AIDS conference in South Africa. He spoke in front of over 20,000 people at this conference.

Nkosi had a wisdom beyond his years. He was a very smart little boy. He had a sense of himself and was sophisticated far beyond his years. He was always willing to talk about persons with AIDS as he believed it was a cause far bigger than just himself.

Nkosi had a classmate in school who became his best buddy. Nkosi's teacher was just marvelous and treated Nkosi without a stigma. Living to 12 1/2 years Nkosi was one of the longest living pediatric aids babies in South Africa. As you read this wonderful book you will learn all about a this boy's courage and his mother's great love for him.