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Goethe-Institut Namibia, German Embassy celebrate World Read Aloud Day
Handing over of Books by Detlef Pfeifer of the Goethe-Institut., © German Embassy, Windhoek
The Goethe-Institut Namibia, together with the National Library and Archive Services (NLAS) and the German Embassy Windhoek celebrated World Read Aloud Day 2024 on 7 February 2024.
The event took place together with pupils from the Moses Garoeb Primary School in Windhoek/Katutura. In addition to the Director of NLAS at the Ministry of Education, German children's book author Nasrin Siege, the principal of Moses Garoeb School as well as representatives from the German Embassy and the Goethe-Institut were on the list of speakers. The programme was enriched by pupils reading from the Namibian books of the BookSprint Namibia reading initiative, as well as a performance by the well-known storyteller Tangeni Nambinga, presenting his story of Penda and the Lion.
On a single BookSprint day, in just 12 hours, volunteer creative teams work fast to create beautiful African children’s books that anyone can freely translate, print and distribute. The first BookSprint took place in 2022 and resulted in the creation of four Namibian children’s books. The Goethe-Institut Namibia and the German Embassy provided a donation of 650 of those books to the learners of Moses Garoeb School, so each pupil could take a book home at the end of the event. So far, more than 6000 BookSprint books have been distributed to Namibian schools and Kindergartens since 2023. The books can be read and downloaded from the website www.booksprintnamibia.org and are freely available to everyone without copyright.
The Goethe-Institute Namibia and the German Embassy are planning to hold the next BookSprint in October 2024, in order to create more children’s books by Namibian authors and illustrators.
World Reading Day is always celebrated on the first Wednesday of February and this year fell on the 7th of February. The day is dedicated not only to reading, but also to the art and practice of reading aloud. Stories have been passed down from generation to generation since before the invention of writing. Oral storytelling was the earliest way of preserving human knowledge, insight and creativity. This day helps us to revive this tradition of reading while promoting literacy.
