The Power Of Seeing Your Language In A Book

I have started publishing books in African languages because I believe that it is for children to see their own language alongside other languages and to have access to books that reflect their heritage. Whenever I came across families that spoke my mother tongue, I would speak it to them. This made them feel welcome and a part of the community; there is power in hearing and seeing your own language. They trusted us more when they were leaving their children, and it helped them understand what we do in the setting.

This led me to consider how beneficial it would be for settings and schools to have bilingual books from African backgrounds. I also thought about how it could be useful for early literacy between bilingual parents and their children, as research shows that children who do not speak English as their first language tend to struggle with literacy.

• The first bilingual book is Under The Orange Tree (English Version) and Labe Igi Osan (Yoruba, translated version). Yoruba is a language spoken in West Africa, primarily in the Southwestern region of Nigeria, with 30 to 40 million speakers. It is also spoken in countries such as Cameroon, Benin, Sierra Leone, Liberia and other parts of Africa.
• The second bilingual book is Under The Mango Tree (English version) and Amango Dua No Ase, Faako A Yedii Agorↄ No (Akan Ashanti Twi translated version). Akan Ashanti Twi is a dialect spoken in southern and central Ghana in West Africa, with millions of speakers in Ghana and some parts of Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, South America and the Caribbean.
• The third bilingual book is We Like To Eat Dates (English version)  نحب اكل التمر (Arabic, translated version). Arabic is a widely spoken language in North Africa, with official status in approximately 25 Arab-speaking countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt.

These books are now in schools and libraries to support early literacy, raise the profile of different languages and celebrate diversity. Events such as library storytimes provide an opportunity to share and celebrate different languages and I think it is vital that libraries stock books with pictures of families from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

I have run workshops in early-years settings, local libraries and schools. During these workshops, I observed that children were delighted and often surprised to hear their home languages in a learning environment. They not only listened to bilingual storybooks in their mother tongue but also dressed up in their traditional clothing. They played musical drums, using shekere (a beaded gourd rattle) and agogo (a bell instrument often used in samba) to complement the workshop sessions.

Bilingual counting in the library

I did a storytelling event at Coombes Croft branch library. It is in Haringey, directly opposite the Tottenham Hotspur ground. I asked librarian Eleni Markou for her view of the workshop:

‘She read the book to us and she got us to copy what she was saying. She was modelling the pronunciation and we were reciting and counting, and then we tried singing a counting song. When she stood up and danced to the song, she was just amazing. She was completely uninhibited and everybody was drawn in so we were singing in an African language and she was encouraging us, calling out “Say it again, let’s hear it again!”‘

Black history celebration

St Francis de Sales RC Primary in Tottenham invited me to do an assembly with pupils in reception. Cherry Clark shared her perspective on the session: ‘We had a large number of Nigerian and Ghanaian children in reception. We also had a student teacher with us who was a native speaker of Ashanti Twi. She read Bimbola’s second book Amango Dua No Ase, Faako A Yedii Agorↄ No which all the pupils enjoyed.’

‘We did a topic called Granny Goes To Market where she travelled around the world on a flying carpet and went to different countries, so we learned to say hello in those languages. We made a passport and talked about what we would do in those countries and what food might we find. It was about broadening horizons and making the unknown more familiar.‘

The school bought some copies of the books to use in class but also put them out on the table when parents and children borrow a book to read together at home.

‘The assembly helped all the children because it was a fun activity but also gave children who spoke those languages the novel experience of seeing their classmates joining in and trying to pronounce the numbers,’ she said. ‘When we read a book in English, then children who are not fluent in the language have to use their thinking brain and try to work out what’s happening in the stories.’

My work is making a difference because it helps to promote African languages and cultures and gives children from Africa a sense of representation. The books also help children who do not speak the language to learn about different cultures and to develop their communication skills.

The books are available via Amazon.

For more information and for workshop bookings contact bimseta.com/

Bimbola Olawanle is an early years educator and an author of children’s books.