Steven Tito Academy: African books for African children

I have learnt many things over the past few years about teaching reading. One of the most important things is that the books students read need to be relevant and interesting. When planning and preparing resources to take with me to Tanzania, I was very aware of the problems faced by young Tanzanian readers.

While I haven’t research the statistics, my guess is that most picture books, levelled readers, chapter books and other educational books are produced for countries in the developed world, such as Australia, England and the USA. As a consequence, the books tend to portray children with pets, playing in snow, eating pizza and burgers and living with your typical nuclear family of Mum, Dad and a couple of kids. While these books are interesting and indeed relevant for kids in countries like Australia, the same can’t be said for children in developing countries like Tanzania. While the morals and themes of some of these books are relevant to all children, many of the situations, characters and settings in our favourite children’s books are unfamiliar to Tanzanian kids. They have difficulty learning to read when they have little prior knowledge of the topic or concept on which the book is based.

In my opinion, what East African children need are books written by, for or about East Africans. They need books that are relevant to their lives and present the various events that Tanzanian people experience, in different and engaging ways. They need stories that tackle some of the issues that society faces such as: poverty, HIV and AIDS, land degradation and unemployment. They need stories that show the beauty, colour, music and diversity of African nations.

I have tried my best to find a range of books that are relevant and appropriate for young Tanzanian readers, to take with me next year. There are lots out there such as:

The Jamela series by Niki Daly (about a fun and lively young girl from South Africa)
Africa is Not a Country by Margy Burns Knight and Mark Melnicove (an important book for African and non-African children and adults
The Village that Vanished by Ann Grifalconi (exposes children to the impact that slavery had on Africa)
Catch that Goat by Polly Alakija (a colourful tale set in a Nigerian market)

These books (and the many others I have, piled up in my room) will come with me to Tanzania and will support the students at STA to develop into confident readers. Hopefully, having books that they can relate to, with characters that they are familiar with will help strengthen their comprehension.

Do you know of any other good African books, preferably about/set in East Africa or Tanzania?