Growing up in rural Pongola, Kwa-Zulu Natal, I used to listen to my grandparents telling folktales such as How the Rock Rabbit Missed Having a Tail, amongst many others. I loved listening to these stories because they were told in my language – SiSwati – and I could understand them very well. What always worried me though, was who would take over telling these...

Teaching your children to read and to love reading is a valuable investment in their education. This series of family-literacy articles is provided by the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign to support caregivers during and after the national lockdown. Sharing books and stories with your children helps to build a strong and loving bond with them while also helping to develop the literacy skills that are so important...

When I was growing up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, life was starkly different from what it is today. In the townships, households with electricity and a television set were a rarity; a luxury only enjoyed by a privileged few. Further, community libraries and books in homes were practically unheard of. For many, radio was the only medium of news and entertainment...

This month Nal’ibali – South Africa’s reading-for-enjoyment campaign – is launching a Siswati edition of its popular bilingual newspaper story supplement for children and their caregivers. Previously available in eight different official-language combinations, the new addition of Siswati is part of Nal’ibali’s vision to ensure that every child in South Africa has access to good-quality leisure-reading materials in their mother tongue. “Stories help develop children’s...