I started Luyana because I couldn't find the books I wanted for my own children.
I'm a Zimbabwean mum living in the UK. Like a lot of diaspora parents, I want my kids to grow up speaking Shona, to feel at home in two cultures rather than caught between them. But when I went looking for bilingual children's books — in Shona, let alone Ndebele or Tonga or Lozi — I found that they mostly exist, but they're scattered, hard to discover, and almost never curated by someone who actually reads them with their own children.
So Luyana is the library I wished existed. Bilingual children's books in Shona, Ndebele, Igbo, Yoruba, Swahili, Zulu, Chichewa and a growing list of other African languages — chosen by a parent, for parents.
A little about what makes Luyana different
I'm an accountant by day, and one of the things I've come to care about is teaching kids about money in their heritage language. Kuchengetedza (saving), kupa (giving), kukumbira (borrowing) — these aren't just words. They're the shape your child's relationship with money will take. You'll see this thread running through some of the books I recommend and the posts I share.
Who Luyana is for
If you're raising children far from home and you want them to grow up in both languages, both cultures, both versions of themselves — you're who I made this for.
If you can't find a book you're looking for, tell me. I'm building this catalogue one book at a time, and the best suggestions have always come from other parents.
Welcome.
Thank you for visiting Luyana Library. We hope you find stories here that feel like home—and others that take you somewhere new. Every child deserves to see themselves in the pages of a book, and every family deserves the joy of discovering languages and cultures together. Happy reading!