“Stories from Our Home” Combines AI and Folklore to Support Early Learning in Lagos

Stories from Our Home is a new pilot initiative bringing together Google, Slum2School Africa, and comedian and creator Samuel Animashaun Perry, popularly known as Broda Shaggi, with a simple but ambitious goal: to place culturally grounded learning materials into the hands of nursery school pupils in underserved Lagos communities.

Powered by Google’s Gemini and published by creative studio Inked Memory, the project blends technology with heritage, using storytelling and illustration to help young children see themselves, their histories, and their everyday worlds reflected in what they learn. At its core is a launch run of 1,000 Dream Packs, sponsored by Google and distributed by Slum2School Africa. Each pack contains the Stories from Our Home: Nigerian History Coloring Book, alongside crayons, art supplies, and basic writing materials to support early literacy and creative play.

For Orondaam Otto, founder of Slum2School Africa, the value of these materials goes far beyond entertainment. He notes that for children at nursery level, colouring and creative play are “critical developmental steps,” helping to build fine motor skills, focus, and confidence. Yet access to such tools remains uneven. Many children in underserved communities simply do not have colouring books or crayons, even as they are increasingly exposed to a flood of global content that rarely reflects their own cultures.

He also emphasized the importance of preserving and modernizing African folklore for a new generation. Children need to encounter stories where they recognize their own environments and traditions, presented in ways that feel current, engaging, and meaningful. As the world continues to evolve, he added, introducing digital literacy early is equally important, especially as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent  in everyday life.

That intersection of culture, creativity, and technology was on display on February 5, when Google hosted a dedicated workshop at its Lagos office. The session marked the first creative step in developing the coloring book. Broda Shaggi was joined by his friends, a group of Nigerian creators and online personalities to experiment with Gemini, generating visual concepts and line-art drafts inspired by Nigerian storytelling themes.

During the workshop, participants learned how to use Gemini to create and refine clean, print-ready illustrations. Each creator helped lead the creative direction for two to three pages that will appear in the final published book. The idea was not only to tap into the imagination of some of Nigeria’s most visible creative voices, but also to show how accessible these tools can be.

As Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, Google’s Communications and PR Manager for West Africa, explained, the aim is to widen access to both creativity and technology. “We want to put tools to dream into the hands of kids,” he said, noting that empowering storytellers with AI helps close the gap between imagination and execution. Watching creators like Broda Shaggi use Gemini to visualize Nigerian stories and history, he added, demonstrates that the tool is as useful for seasoned artists as it is for beginners.

Speaking on the project, Broda Shaggi pointed to a broader responsibility: “Children are suffering due to lack of governmental care, so if we can give back — if we can do something to help them, then we should.”

He didn’t come alone. The workshop also included an array of creators such as Falz and Chinasa Anukam, lending their voices and platforms to the initiative. Their involvement reflects the project’s broader philosophy: using familiar cultural figures to bridge the space between technology and creativity, and to make learning feel relevant and exciting.

As Stories from Our Home moves from concept to classroom, it positions AI not as a replacement for imagination, but as a support system for it. By combining local stories, modern tools, and community-driven distribution, the project offers a model for how technology can be used to nurture creativity while staying rooted in heritage.