Ibali means story in isiXhosa. This name was chosen to mark the launch of the first iteration of the Ibali network in Cape Town in 2018. This network was created by a team of colleagues from the UK, South Africa, Sweden, Kenya and Nigeria. Since then, we have worked across a range of collaborations with each other, and with colleagues from around the world.
Ibali works closely with Transformative Story, and we recently collaborated on this online guide for storytelling.
We have worked with funders including the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), The Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), and The Open University’s Research Development Fund.
Ibali projects include the creation of a network of storytelling scholars across Sub-Saharan Africa, a story-focused evaluation of teacher educator resources in Uganda, the piloting of online storytelling workshops, a longitudinal storytelling project with adolescent girls in Zimbabwe, and a study of young people’s and teachers’ experiences of inclusion in schools in the UK, Nigeria and South Africa.
Throughout its evolution, Ibali has drawn on the expertise of a range of scholars and practitioners. These include:
Ogah Steve Abah
Liz Chamberlain
Alice Gathoni
Chris High
Nancy Mwangone
Ayomide Oluseye
Kris Stutchbury