African stories for African kids [This is culture]

Nearly half of Africa’s population is under 18, a huge potential for the future of the continent. Education therefore plays a major role in enabling this youth to develop critical thinking skills. Because an uneducated people does not go very far.

Today is the Universal Children’s Day. In this domain, everyone knows that the key to everything is education and the magic word is: school. But sometimes knowledge can be conveyed through cartoons or books.

On today’s segment we took a glimpse into educational contents adapted for the young African public.

For instance, there is an Ethiopian cartoon that is quite entertaining but also educative. It is called “The Tibeb Girls” which features 3 girls with superpowers . They use their powers to denounce taboos in African societies, and also educate on subjects ranging from conjugal violence, how to be educated and so on.

Tsion Kiros is Ethiopian. She publishes books aimed at Ethiopian kids, and wishes to promote ethiopian culture and languages, like amharic.

“I decided to get into the publishing industry because the books I was reading to my children did not reflect their realities. I want them to know about their history, like the battle of Adwa. Most kids don’t know the battle of Adwa. It’s the time when Ethiopians won against Italia in 1896. I want them to know their history so they can take pride in being Africans and Ethiopians.”

For Tsion, representation matters.

“I want my kids to see a black hero in books. Cinderella does not have Blacks. I want my daughter to see herself, a curly-haired as a hero in books. A main character, not just a supporting character. My daughter finds it very exciting that there is an Ethiopian hero in the book, and she looks like her. And this shows you that children really want to see themselves in books.”

We took a look on photo by Vincent Tremeau. Vincent met several children in various countries on the continent (like Central African Republic, Mali, DRC, etc) and he asked them a famous question: What do you want to be when you grow up?

His photo project is called “One day, I will”.

In one of the portraits, there is a little boy in suit, his hand on his chest , he wants to become the president of Mali because he thinks he can help his country but also earn a lot of money.

Most children interviewed want to become footballers, soldiers or teachers.

Have a look at the video!