Literacy Blog

It's International Translation Day, and so it is an appropriate day on which to ask: Why is literacy important? The answer is simple: We will never succeed economically, or as a society, if we are not literate. Literacy remains the key to unlocking South Africa’s success and yet both numerical and linguistic literacy continue to evade us. As a multilingual, multicultural society, social cohesion and deep learning can happen only if we create a plethora of “literacies” in...

"Once upon a time, there was a very clever young man in a certain village. People were jealous about this. One day an old man came to visit this young clever man to ask him some difficult questions to prove his intelligence..." This Heritage Day, we asked our team and children who attend Nal’ibali reading clubs to record some of the old stories their families...

As part of their package of support to Early Childhood Development centres, Nal’ibali Literacy Mentors recently explored the power of Storyplay – a strategy using imaginative (pretend) play as a way to support young children’s exploration and understanding of stories, people and the world around them. Following a week of training with Storyplay consultant Sara Robinson, this is what we learnt: A factor that characterises...

Nonikiwe Mashologu is the chairperson of the South African branch of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People). She was recently celebrated as one of 12 women working to drive literacy change in South Africa. She was also one of the judges for the 2013 Golden Baobab Prize. As a mom and an advocate for literacy, she teaches skilful ways to sneak reading...

David Harrison is the CEO of the DG Murray Trust, core funder of the Nal’ibali campaign, and shares his opinion on why access to books and stories is every child's right. This article originally appeared in the Cape Argus, 23 April 2014. Every Tuesday, an enterprising church minister from Rondebosch packs a box of theatre props and heads out to a nutrition rehabilitation centre in Crossroads on...

Dr Carole Bloch, director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa, speaks to us about the importance of preserving our multilingual storytelling culture: Many English speakers look bemused at the thought of celebrating World Mother Tongue Day – what’s to celebrate? After all, it’s normal to use our mother tongue every day, isn’t it? No, it’s not! In a multilingual country like South...

Righard’s reading group has grown a lot, from a mere 14 children plucked from informal soccer fields into nine different reading groups – totalling roughly 270 kids – reading every week! He and his team have also been asked to read at local schools during school hours, to help encourage reading for enjoyment among the students. He shares with us his views on building a...

I have mixed feelings about September. While in my head it heralds the beginning of spring and the move towards warmer weather (even if nature doesn’t actually play along with this), International Literacy Day on 8 September always provides a sobering reality check: 775 million adults in the world who are illiterate; 64% of these women and 22% living in sub-Saharan Africa. Not exactly...

“Not everything that counts can be counted. And not everything that can be counted, counts.” — Albert Einstein It’s always a sign of hope when we sense the buzz of activity as organisations and individuals gear up to do volunteering for a better South Africa, especially around days such as Mandela Day. There is something we can all choose to do to help with one of...

I am alive today because reading saved my life. There are not many people who love reading. It is so disappointing to find that people still have negative attitudes towards reading. I can’t blame them because we all have different experiences and reasons. I long for a day where reading and writing will be advertised and hyped up like drugs and alcohol. Billboards everywhere, TV,...

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Cultivating a reading culture is key to the country’s future

How family stories transform children’s lives

Storyplay and moral imagination

How to Sneak Reading into your Child's Everyday Life

Why we cannot overlook children's right to stories and books

Mother-tongue stories and preserving culture

Building a nation of readers, school by school

Growing a nation of readers

Pitching in together

How reading saved my life