Literacy Blog

Currently the Marketing Manager for the Africa region for Cambridge University Press, Wonder Chabalala has worked with and been inspired by books all his life. He developed a passion for the industry after becoming a part-time bookseller for a large retail company while studying, and since then has been in the book industry for 22 years in both retail and publishing. Wonder shares powerful ideas of...

Children’s Grief Awareness Day is a reminder that children feel and experience grief and pain as acutely as adults. They may experience a wide range of emotions – anger, depression, confusion, frustration, anxiety – but they may not yet have the words to identify and express these emotions. And because they have not yet learned to verbalise emotions in the way adults do, children are...

Dr Garth Japhet is the founder and chief executive of Heartlines, a value-based media campaign and printed resource organisation. Heartlines has developed a series of books titled ‘Stories That Talk’, which assist educators and caregivers in encouraging early literacy skills and learning around values. Sally Mills (Nal'ibali networks and communications coordinator) and Japhet explore the role of stories in helping children cope, and understand difficulties and...

Well known for his work on the African lion, Gareth Patterson is an environmentalist, independent wildlife researcher, public speaker and author who has worked for more than 25 years for greater protection of African wildlife. Read Garth's piece on the symbolic and literal importance of lions: The lion is the animal symbol of the African continent. Symbolising wisdom, protection, courage and royalty, humankind has drawn...

Nal’ibali aims to get multilingual stories to families and caregivers across the country through our digital platforms, and fortnightly newspaper supplements. These resources can be accessed from our website and mobisite. While our focus is not book donation, we do work with and recommend partner organisations and NGOs that provide book donation resources for those looking for some hardcover reading fun. So, if you’re looking...

Many years ago, the influential children’s literacy scholar Margaret Spencer Meek remarked, “Every child needs three books at the same time ‒ one that they can read whatever happens, one they are reading at the moment, and one they’re just about able to read. The first the child reads, the second you help them to read and the third, you read to him or...

Barbara Comber is a Research Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. She is particularly interested in literacy education and social justice and recently visited South Africa, further sharing her work on the topic: Sharing stories of one kind or another with the next generation is something intrinsic to everyday life in most communities. Listening to parents and...

Sindiwe Magona, an accomplished South African writer, literary activist and retired teacher, is a judge in Nal’ibali’s storytelling competition being run this September and will help crown South Africa’s first ‘Story Bosso’. Sindiwe, who has grown up on stories, feels that our identity is inseparable from the stories we tell: In traditional societies, stories were an integral part of the socialisation of the child. They were...

Alinah Segobye is an academic, writer, storyteller and futurist. She holds an honorary professorship at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute and is the former Deputy Executive Director at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa. Alinah explores the role of technology in developing a reading culture in Africa: How did the first rock-art artist get inspired? Was it a young doodler sent to...

As Africans, we have a deep history of storytelling and one that is in danger of being left behind as we move into an increasingly digital way of life. To celebrate the power of storytelling, Nal’ibali, the national reading-for-enjoyment campaign, recently ran a countrywide storytelling talent search, Story Bosso. In the process of inviting all South Africans, young and old, to share their stories,...

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Creating collective change through stories

The healing power of stories

Stories: The emotional fabric of society

Reading for lions: Stories and animal conservation

Six book-donation organisations: How to apply

Translation to turbo-charge stories

Sharing stories with children: Literacy and social justice

We are the stories we tell

Embracing technology and nurturing a reading culture in Africa

Celebrating elders as storytellers