I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an autobiographical novel written by Maya Angelou a writer who played a major role in the African-American civil rights movement, a politic movement of which the aim was to defend the rights of blacks during the apartheid. This movement was symbolized by Martin Luther King.

In this book Maya Angelou, from her real name Marguerite Johnson tells us her childhood where younger she was placed at her grandmother with her brothers because like the majority of the Afro-American family her parents didn’t have enough money to provide their needs. Her grandmother was living in the Arkansas a state in which racism was omnipresent. At the age of seven she goes back to her mother but a tragic event happened to Maya and she returned to her grandmother.

One day Mrs. Bertha Flower an aristocrat introduces the literature to Maya an art which gives her confidence in herself. Good student, Maya is send in a private school in California, she is the only black…

This book only tells us just a part of her life. Despite it I found this book really touching because we learn the story of one of the most emblematic woman during the apartheid. Maya Angelou was such a charismatic woman and when you read her poetry or hear her speeches you don’t think that she may have suffered all of these hardships. This book is a great life lesson, I advise you to read it !