Blog | Nal'ibali

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If, ‘The journey of a lifetime starts with the turning of a page,’ then Nal’ibali – South Africa’s reading-for-enjoyment campaign – has been the catalyst for millions of lifetime journeys. Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for ‘Here’s the story’) was founded in 2012 to spark children's potential through storytelling and reading. Each year since, it has been leading literacy change in SA by galvanising adults into reading...
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On Friday, 17 September, children across South Africa will be invited to mail a postcard to their loved ones anywhere in the country, free of charge at selected post offices. This opportunity – a commemoration of National Literacy Month – is made possible by the South African Post Office and Nal’ibali. Nal’ibali, a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children’s potential through storytelling and reading, has...
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Meet  53 year old mam Florah Dlamini. From Centocow in Mzikhulu, a small town three hours from Durban. Florah has a reading club in her community and has over the years encouraged many other parents and caregivers to do the same. What are you currently working on for Nal'ibali and what do you enjoy doing most?  Reading books with children is what I mostly enjoy doing. I...
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By: Yandiswa Xhakaza As a woman, you either love or hate the month of August. It's the month when women are inundated with requests to attend events, asked to share their experiences, struggles, triumphs, and are reminded of how much more they can (read: should) achieve, despite the challenges they endure. What does it mean to be a woman? This is a personal question because it...
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Khumo Tapfumaneyi is a co-founder of Ethnikids, a specialist online bookstore sourcing and selling children’s books that feature characters of colour in different South African languages. Tapfumaneyi has made it her mission to ensure that as many children as possible can fall in love with reading by seeing children just like themselves reflected in the stories they read. The Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign caught up with...
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A love of reading is sparked when children see themselves in stories and relate it to their lives, even more so when it is shared in their home language. Xolisa Guzula – early literary specialist, author and translator – agrees that when children learn to read in their mother tongues it’s much easier to build on that foundation. However, a survey by the Publishers Association SA...
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I am Melody Ngomane, born and bred in Hazyview, Mpumalanga. My first contact with Nal’ibali was in 2019 when I submitted stories for their radio stories season 5 submission. I have since submitted 21 stories for both Seasons 5 and 6. Some of those, namely The old woman and the bee, The mirror in the jungle, The kind man, Daisy’s little voice and Lazy Lollie were...
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Meet Bubele Retshe My writing journey dates back to 2005 when I fell in love with reading and the English language. It was the year that I was sent to a school where English was the medium of teaching and communication. At that point in my life, the only English phrase I knew with confidence was, "Good morning, ma'am." My English was so poor that I...
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My 84-year-old grandmother has recently been ailing. Every day for the past week, we have had uncles and aunts, cousins, and grandchildren over at our house to see her. With the house full of hum, in the midst of dinner preparations and the banter of a well-bonded family, from her bedroom, my gran called for help. I quickly ran to her side. Her breathing was...
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LET YOUR CHILDREN FLY… THROUGH STORIES

Posted on
25 January 2021
Nal’ibali, the national reading-for-enjoyment campaign, has been bringing a special story to children to celebrate World Read Aloud Day (WRAD) for the past eight years. In the first year (2013), the campaign reached 13 000 children and in 2021, the goal is to read aloud to 3 million children in a single day.  Nal’ibali celebrates WRAD on Wednesday 3 February in 2021, to draw attention to...
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