Nal’ibali (isiXhosa for “here’s the story”) is a national reading-for-enjoyment campaign to spark children’s potential through storytelling and reading. Very few children have access to children's picture books in South Africa and this campaign wants to bridge this gap by making stories more available. The illustrations below were created for a mobile app were parents can access it for free to read to their children.
This story is an African folk tale about how bat came about by saving the sun.
This is a story about the rain bird and how it brought rain to village.
The smell thief is about an old lady that smells the baker's buns everyday. The baker gets very angry and takes the old lady to court. There the judge tells the baker to listen to the sound of the old ladies coins as payment for his smell.
Nal’ibali, the national reading-for-enjoyment campaign, has created a set of specially illustrated public storytelling seats to inspire children and caregivers to sit and share stories together. Made out of recycled bathtubs, and placed in public places around Cape Town, the seats form part of the campaign’s current ‘Story Power. Bring it home’ drive, aimed at raising awareness about the power of stories to spark children’s potential and put them on the path to educational success. The storytelling seats were launched at the V&A Waterfronton Saturday December 6, with a special storytelling session.The seats, which were designed and developed by local sculptor Verna Jooste and illustrated by artist Mieke van der Merwe, depict a colourful scene from The Smell Thief – one of more than 25 stories that have been developed and translated by PRAESA, which is driving the Nal’ibali campaign. A message on the seats details how people can access the story, along with others, in the language of their choice via the Nal’ibali web- and mobisites.
Kicking off such activities and prompting a tradition of story sharing at home, the launch at the V&A featured a fun storytelling to bring to life the story depicted on the seats. Nal’ibali promoters distributed literacy materials outlining the benefits of reading and sharing stories with children and engaged members of the public on reading for enjoyment.
Selected to be one of the 460 transformative design projects to showcase the role that design can play in social transformation, the Nal’ibali storytelling seats can next be viewed at the Central Library in Cape Town as part of their tour across the province.
