African Storybook extending agency to communities

The African Storybook initiative capacity builds local agency through providing access to children’s story books, as well as tools for the creation, translation and adaptation of children’s storybooks using open licence publishing platform.

Through the African Storybook platform, educators, parents and children are no longer only users of literature produced outside of their contexts and in unfamiliar languages, but they are now enabled to create their own stories moving from the known to the unknown in their literacy journey, writes Mimi Werna the African Storybook (ASb) champion based in Abuja Nigeria.

In March 2020, Mimi Werna representing ASb co-facilitated a workshop in Abuja with Nkem Osuigwe, Director of the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) on the use of and contribution to the ASb website. The workshop was attended by 60 librarians from Nigeria and Ghana.

Workshop participants were grouped into various language groups of Ibibio, Afeimo, Twi, Urhobo, Ikwerre, Tiv, Ebira, Igala, Bura, Nupe, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

The larger groups were able to go through the entire translation process, while the others sought help over the phone and emails from people who helped as they worked. Others had to take the translation home and send it days or weeks after. Some are still pending because they haven’t found confident language users who can help quality assure their work.

A total of 10 stories were translated and quality assured for the ASb website. New languages that will be published on the platform will be Ibibio, Afeimo, Ikwerre, Igala, Bura and Nupe.

Participants discussed the relevance of indigenous language stories, they emphasised the importance of writing African stories as it will support over 80% of children in rural areas who have no access to educational and reading materials. The adoption of an open licence gives many access to stories with the local context, relatable and familiar to the African context.

The workshop exhaustively discussed the importance of openly licensed stories in the languages of Africa and its impact on African children and literacy development.

Participants applauded ASb and AfLia for presenting an opportunity to write African narratives for the world to see in staggering quantities instead of waiting for others to tell or approve of the stories.

Mimi Werna is an advocate or ambassador who is passionate about her own work of enhancing community literacy using ASb resources and tools accessible on the ASb website and ASb builder Application.
As a champion, Mimi advocates for the use of and contribution to the ASb platforms. She has used ASb stories to improve children’s literature and language. She has read ASb stories on radio and live audiences.
She became an ASb supporter after participating as a writer in the ASb-British Council Story Making West Africa workshop held in Abuja in 2018. Since then, she has used the various ASb platforms and tools to further empower herself and her community.