Sharing our stories

Keynote address to the IBBY  conference, Cape Town:

"I have been asked to share with you one of the most remarkable stories of the past decade: South Africa's relatively peaceful transition to democracy. During this week we hope to share with you our children's books. South Africa has three great contributions to make to world children's literature: the folktales of its peoples; books about its magnificent animals, plant kingdoms and landscapes; and stories which document, grieve over, and celebrate our history."...

 read more

Ukufunda KuNgca!

Gcina Mhlope, well known storyteller and writer was the keynote speaker at the Children's Literature Symposium in March 2001.

That's the name of the project that the three organisations Biblionef, the South African Children's Book Forum (SACBF) and the Centre for the Book have come together to initiate. (You can dream up a translation in your own language, along the lines of Reading is Kool! or Die Lekker van Lees! or . etc.)

What the three organisations have in common is that we are all concerned with making reading for leisure something that is fun and enjoyable for children and young people from the age of 0 to school-leaving age (let's say 19).

We don't believe it is our job to teach teachers how to teach reading; nor is it our concern to see that school books, readers and other forms of printed information reach schools and school students. Of course, we believe those things are vitally important, but they are the job of others - state education departments, universities and colleges.

We see our project as leisure reading. If children of all ages can be encouraged and persuaded to read for pleasure, for fun, for the sheer 'Ngca!' of it, then the other kinds of reading are likely to follow in a natural and unforced way.

We want to start small and to go slowly, but we do want to be ready with a plan of action when either major corporate funders or the state authorities take on board NGO-assistance in implementing an over-arching nationwide campaign of reading for children and young people.

We see the following as our short-term goals:

1. To invite anyone who is interested to become involved in the Ukufunda KuNgca! project. Let us know who and where you are and what you are doing or might want to do.
2. To build up a thorough, comprehensive database of all organisations and individuals who are working in this field in whatever way and wherever.
3. To form a reservoir of all the research and data and reports that already exist concerning leisure reading and children-&-young-people in South Africa; and to make all of this research readily and freely available to everyone else working in this field.
4. To plan towards a one-day national conference to draw up a practical set of ideas to change the profile of young South Africa into that of a reading nation.

The conduit for all the gathering and sharing of this information is the email channel, the Children's Literature Network, the CLN, at its email address cln@nlsa.ac.za . For those who don't know it, this is an e-group hosted by the Centre for the Book, to which anyone can belong and contribute. Anything sent in to the CLN email address is disseminated to everyone on the e-group list. To receive all CLN notices, simply email that address and ask to be added.

Another route is for people to share whatever information they have on either the Centre for the Book website (www.nlsa.ac.za/centreforthebook) or on any other appropriate website, with a reciprocal link so that all shared information is as widely accessible as possible.

So, teachers, librarians, writers, illustrators, publishers, booksellers, university students, college students, school students, sponsors, fund-raisers, corporates, parents, care-givers, and all interested individuals, please see this as a warm invitation to become a part of Ukufunda KuNgca!, and respond to the CLN email address cln@nlsa.ac.za. We look forward to your involvement and participation.

- Issued by Biblionef bibsa@iafrica.com, the South African Children's Book Forum sacbf@worldonline.co.za and the Centre for the Book cfb@nlsa.ac.za

To join the E-Goup send an email message to 
cln@nlsa.ac.za 

Tel: 021 423 2669
Fax: 021 424 1484