What happens when a child growing up in a remote village never sees a map, a book, or a story about the world beyond their home? Hilma Weber knows firsthand—and she’s on a mission to change that.

In this episode, we chat with Hilma about her journey from Namibia to Switzerland and how her passion for books led her to create library boxes for underprivileged children. We dive into her beautifully illustrated Children’s Picture Atlas of Namibia and Africa, why maps spark curiosity, and how she’s inspiring a love for reading.

Plus, we hear a hilarious story about a roaring competition that terrified some chickens! 🦁📖🐔

Deutsch: Du kannst diesen Podcast auch auf Deutsch hören: “Africa with André auf Deutsch”

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Hilma Weber website: https://hilma-weber.com/

Examples of Hilma’s books: https://hilma-weber.com/books/

-             Children’s Picture Atlas of Namibia

-             Children’s Picture Atlas of Africa

-             The Treasure Hunt (A Tale of Friendship)

-             Hear Me Too

-             The Feelings

Development Workshop Namibia: https://dw-namibia.org/ecd.php

Information about The Sahel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahel

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Sound credits: uppbeat.io/ and https://pixabay.com/ 

Episode 12 - Hilma Weber and creating a love for books

[00:00:08] André: Hello, and welcome to a new episode of my podcast, where we interview friends and partners to tell positive stories about Africa. Those of you that know me are well aware that apart from anything Africa, I'm a massive fan of books. I started a pretty successful book club about four years ago, and I make sure that the children in my circle of family and friends are given books regularly.

So, I'm delighted to combine two of my loves in today's episode. My guest is Hilma Weber. Hilma grew up in Namibia and a few years ago she was inspired to make books more accessible for the less fortunate children in her birth country. This has in turn inspired her to author several children's books. I look forward to you meeting her today.

Hello Hilma, it's good to have you here. Welcome.

[00:01:01] André: You're very welcome.

Your first book that you wrote is called "My Children's Picture Atlas of Namibia".

In our initial chat, you mentioned that a lot of the children in the villages they've started school, they haven't left the villages. So, one of the things that you wanted to do with this book was to help the children understand what they are a part of, what is outside of the villages, beyond the next hill, beyond the next sand dune, beyond where they can imagine. Tell me about that. Cause I think you went at this from a point of personal experience.

And also, interactions I had with the children. So, I was speaking to five and six year olds, and I noticed that there was a gap in their general knowledge about things outside their immediate surroundings.

[00:02:05] Hilma: It was really resonating with my own childhood story. And that's how I got to an idea because I felt such a book would allow children to realize that they live in a bigger space.

So, "My Children's Picture Atlas of Namibia" is a visual, it's an interactive book, about Namibia. And it covers the geography, the people, the cultural diversity that Namibia has, the landscape, the wildlife, and it also touches a little bit on how government is structured. And it's really explained in easy way for children to understand, because the book is so beautifully illustrated, it is really for any child from toddler age to 12 years old.

And even adults. I got a comment from, somebody who is from Europe and now living in Namibia, and she wrote a message and say that "I don't think you realize that your book is actually really useful for, people like myself who just moved to Namibia, and I kind of need to find my feet".

So it's really for all ages.

[00:03:36] Hilma: Absolutely. I mean, I was visiting one kindergarten in Omaruru. And the feedback I got from the teachers was really heartwarming, that the children started getting excited because now they can look at a map and they can see, oh and say, my mother came from Outjo, you know, so, so it's really opening up their horizons.

And I'm always curious about that, that moment when children, or when people start to get an understanding of what a map represents. Because I think when you're four, five, six years old, it's just a big picture and you don't actually understand, how far is Omaruru from Windhoek, for example, and - I'm digressing here - but I find it fascinating, that moment when you start to understand what you see on the map.

[00:04:38] André: I loved our first chat where you told me about your life journey from growing up in a village in northern Namibia to now living in Switzerland with your husband and son. I was inspired not only by what you have done to bring books to less fortunate children in Namibia in particular, but also by the books that you have written.

Tell us about the beginning of your project, of bringing books to these kids. And I think you started by reading books to children in kindergartens. Is that right?

And as you can imagine, the children really, really loved it. They were so excited. They just wanted more and more, and the teachers wanted and requested if this activity can become more regular.

[00:05:37] Hilma: Yeah. That was in Windhoek, informal settlements. Uh, some people refer to it as slums, you know. In the settlements where people live with unplanned structures, no services, no access to water, electricity, and so on. So that's where we started.

What in South Africa is sometimes called the townships, or the informal settlements. So that was in Windhoek, the kids must've loved that.

[00:06:01] André: And so you started reading to the kids there, and then how did it develop from there?

We got support from development partners, corporate sector, and yeah, these library boxes were set up and distributed and children had then access to books.

[00:06:55] Hilma: Yes, correct. Yeah, more than 100 boxes by now have been distributed. And, yeah, so like I said, it started off with then, us just really collecting donated books and putting those in the library boxes, in boxes that we would buy in, in a camping shop. So they were metal boxes to make sure that even when it was raining, that these books remain intact. Um, and it's about 20 books we put in a box, in one single box.

[00:07:28] Hilma: Sometimes different, because if you don't get, two books of the same or a number of books of the same, you kind of mix up the themes, and it will really be different kind of books, but picture story books; they could include themes of shapes, colours, early literacy skills, such as learning alphabet, or just pure stories.

And they are appropriate for babies to the age of six, because these are the children that are in the kindergarten, so to say. Because kindergartens in Namibia are combined with childcare, like the daycare. So, mothers go back to work after four months, so you have babies in these kindergartens.

[00:08:16] Hilma: Yeah, yeah, before they go to Grade One, that they in those foundation years that they have access to books.

[00:08:30] Hilma: Absolutely.

[00:08:38] Hilma: It's done informally. Um, so no committee, we collect these books, and we simply just distribute.

What was your aim when you created this, bigger Atlas?

When I saw the positive response to the Namibian Children Atlas, I thought there could be a similar book about Africa, because even myself as an African, I have the special awareness of, you know, Africa, but it would be nice to have something like this.

Because Africa is seen as a continent of similarities, in a way it is true, but not entirely, there is so much diversity in Africa in many ways. The landscape, the cultures, the tradition, thousands of languages, wildlife, vegetation and cuisine, so much more. Everything is just so diverse.

So, my aim was really to bring this diversity across for all of us. For example, somebody like me from Southern Africa, I actually don't know much about West or North Africa, and, although we are both Africans, we might not even have something in common apart from just being Africans, you know?

And the other thing is, to people from other continents, there are also many perception, um, and one of them could be that Africa is this one undeveloped continent, you know, it's just wild.

And I wanted to bring to light that apart from the amazing nature, there are cities in Africa, all kinds of transportation and other sectors, just like other parts of the world. So that's how I got to the idea of doing this similar atlas, but about Africa. And I wanted people to learn, that, Africa is not just one big place: it is a continent with over 50 countries, different people, different cultures, traditions, cuisines, you name it, so that was really my aim.

I love the fact that the book is done in a number of the more common languages so that it's accessible to people all over the continent. Because I think a lot of us Africans do feel a connection to the continent and thereby to each other, even if a lot of the rest of the world thinks it's just one country.

[00:11:39] André: Are there any plans to translate that atlas into Arabic as well maybe, or Kiswahili?

[00:12:00] André: I asked that because I was in Tunisia a couple of years ago, and I organized a driver to take me to the northernmost tip of Africa, And the driver had no clue where to go. It wasn't a touristic spot at all. And in fact, he, and a number of others in Tunisia told me that they didn't really consider themselves part of Africa. They considered themselves more as part of the Arab world.

[00:12:28] André: But then in December, I was in Morocco and there it's different. The people that I spoke to consider themselves more as part of Africa. And yes, there's an Arab world connection, but they consider themselves more of Africa. So I think this feeling of togetherness, comes more from West, East and Southern Africa, than from the North. But I think it would be great to include them in an Arab version of the book.

[00:12:58] André: What there something that you learned about Africa when you wrote this book?

[00:13:10] André: Yeah.

[00:13:32] André: You've written a couple of other books as well, I think the books are all listed on your website. I'll put a link to your website in the show notes, but tell us about two of your favourite books that you've written.

The story is about social, emotional growth. It encourages children to learn about their emotions and be able to name and manage the emotions. So it's really, encouraging the growth of emotional intelligence as well. Because emotions are so important, and quite often children, especially boys, are told not to cry. Or you cannot cry, you are a boy, and so on.

[00:14:29] André: That’s fantastic.

[00:14:42] André: Yeah.

It really displays how our differences make us extraordinary; you know? So quite often we use diversity to, to point out the not so nice, or whatever things that makes us different, but diversity really makes us strong. Yeah, so those are my two favourite books.

[00:15:53] Hilma: Yeah. No, it's, yeah, I'm excited about it.

[00:15:57] Hilma: Yeah, .

[00:16:03] Hilma: My books are widely available on all major online platforms, and bookshops. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, African Books Collective, Waterstones, Booktopia, Blackwells, Walmart, and many others.

André: Okay, great. So, I suppose they can just Google your name, Hilma Weber.

Hilma: Absolutely.

[00:16:32] Hilma: Yeah, sure. Um, so one of them was, um, I, once I was reading a story and I asked the children if they could roar like a lion, and, I expected, you know, quiet, cute roars. But oh no, these kids were complete, like they went into a competition, who can roar the loudest. And even some chickens that were roaming around there, they got terrified and started running around everywhere, and the kids of course had fun and they were like, "Oh, we are the lions, the chickens are scared of us". Yeah, so that was quite funny. Um, everybody had fun.

[00:17:22] Hilma: Yeah, So, it was really fun.

[00:17:38] Hilma: The Namib Desert.

[00:17:41] Hilma: No doubt - I love the desert. I love the feel of the soft sand on my feet. Um, and just when you stand on the top of the dune and you can look out endlessly, it's just absolutely beautiful.

[00:18:03] Hilma: Uh, my favourite animal is a giraffe. My son often asks me, and he hopes that I change my mind, because he likes predators. But I find the giraffe so calm, so collected. I like to observe them, and they are so observant themselves, and they move so elegantly on both long legs. Um, yeah, so I just love them.

Yeah, and the giraffe was my favourite animal as a kid as well. It's changed, but as a child, the giraffe was my absolute favourite as well.

[00:18:37] André: yeah. Hilma, thank you so, so much for your time.

[00:18:44] André: You're very, very welcome.

If there are people who feel that they want to donate books or money towards the project, can they get in touch with you through your website or how is that best done?

[00:19:07] André: Today we spoke to Hilma about her passion of introducing books to children in Namibia, and how this led to her writing books of her own to broaden the horizons of many children that may not have had access to books in the past. You'll find links to Hilma's webpage in my show notes.

And if you have any other questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send me an email at podcast at africawithandre.com.

Until next time!