The Nal'ibali team submitted a presentation on how we could and why we should increase access to multilingual books and stories in South Africa at the Amazwi Children’s Literature Conference in Makhanda, Eastern Cape on 5 and 6 June 2024. We focused specifically on the value of storytelling and story writing by children to create books in indigenous South African languages that reflect the experiences of child writers.
The presentation showcased examples of Nal’ibali’s writing projects by and for children and how writing helped these children and their families to appreciate the value of literacy activities and to deal with the trauma that the family had experienced. At the time of the conference, Nal’ibali had published three books written by children: Nganeno komlambo iQhagqiwa (which means Before you reach the Qhagqiwa River) in 2022 and Iingqondi zeQhagqiwa (which means Critical thinkers of Qhagqiwa) in 2023 in IsiXhosa, and Ke leeto (which means The journey) in Sepedi and English.
We at Nal’ibali believe that, by supporting children to write in their home languages, we can create more books in our indigenous languages that reflect positive and uplifting socio-cultural experiences and imagery of black South African children.
Our presenters at the conference were Eastern Cape Provincial Coordinator Nompucuko Zakaza and Nal'ibali-VW Project Lead Madoda Ndlakuse.
From left: Nadeema Musthan, Nompucuko Zakaza, Madoda Ndlakuse and Cathy Gush. Nadeema and Cathy are Nal’ibali Trust board members.
Why it’s important to encourage children to write in their mother tongues:
* Children explore their thoughts and feelings through drawing and writing.
* The writings and drawings that the children produce are culturally relevant and relatable.
* These stories are low-cost, age-appropriate reading materials in children’s home languages.
* It promotes reading as enjoyable and rewarding.
* It affirms the importance, relevance and beauty of the mother tongue in capturing the experiences, history and culture of the native speaker.