For five years in the 1970s I lived and worked in Botswana and Ghana in Africa. I also traveled to Western, Eastern, and South Africa. From this experience, I collected these impressions of the culture of storytelling in Africa.
History in Africa is sacred (thus my capitalization), and history is interwoven into the daily fabric of life. History is not only words in Africa. The story is told by baskets, cloth, dance, ritual and relationship. May all history show a slight gesture of a body worlds. I experienced a tremendous depth and subtle communication in every country I visited. Normal interactions was exceptional. I remember a woman on the market of Accra, Ghana break into a spontaneous dance with me as part of our history together.
First of all I taught English as a second language (ESL) and literature in secondary schools by peace corps. Made beautiful drawings with stories go my students of Botswana, which she wrote in the school newspaper. She moved history with ease and confidence, as part of their early training was at home.
I opted for story-telling as a teaching tool, to clarify plot lines and cultural bridge separates. The curriculum, I taught a mixture of English classics such as Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer was in wonderful African books like China Achebe "things fall apart combination" and "The beautiful ones are not yet born."
I students for two sets of examinations, which certainly prepared pretty much their future: "O" level or ordinary level (about the equivalent of the late Middle School in the United States) and "A" level or advanced level (about the equivalent of a high school diploma or even first year of Community College in the United States). My students have quite good.
Botswana was one of the books, which we examined "Lambs Tales from Shakespeare". I put my students the task of writing scripts for each of these stories and act out. If you do this kind of analysis, is the commonality between classic European literature and history of the world into sharper relief.
I went end to Botswana on my own to my peace corps tour in secondary schools and was projects each with history as a powerful tool in three village.
With the villagers in Gabane I Tshwaragano Craft Center a puppetry consultant for a popular culture team was, and wrote stories and lesson plans for a literacy curriculum. Learned by working on these projects I story is the life force that moves the brain, heart, and forward limbs. Puppetry consultant I was simply because I have a puppet in the back of a pick-up truck picked up, his arms around shaking started and gives it a voice and lines to speak. We built popular theatre work on the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire critical theory.
Community development workers brainstormed critical questions and then we built stories around them, performed in drama, dance, song and puppetry. We stopped at the height of the action, the audience questions: "Would you what now?" These discussions led to common work projects in the village. We have something similar in the literacy curriculum, which we had designed and illustrated.
I was so impressed with the results that I had seen in the other two projects that I started with puppetry performances at the Tshwaragano to develop critical incidents and stimulate discussion of sensitive situations meets new venture, such as "whose turn is it now sweep the floor?"
I love Africa and their stories. I feel Africa really is the mother of mankind, and certainly archaeological wear off this. In Africa, I felt through embraced that mothering energy.
Never in my life have I was thus includes, maintained on observed, looked after, cared for..... and, who I enjoyed just flat out. Africa is a continent, not a country, of course, but I felt this no matter where I went.
Stories make difficult and painful situations. In Botswana, I remember stories told a campfire under a sky full of piercing, Star one night, our truck in the Bush between then and Maun broke.
I remember in Ghana in stories the brim tells Mammy trucks that could plunge us in an accident around the next corner replete. But in one of these situations if we would have been in danger, would we have it as friends, not as foreign, and this would have been by the power and the grace of the story.
History is to know the thread of the celebration and the thread. While I went to a village of the peace corps training no outsider had lived ever. We were brought through history each other each other curious and print. Their stories, I collected, and she created stories and song-to the memory of my visit.
Stories in an any language and culture are our children worth telling and disclosure. Africa has the oral history, of course, and you could probably talk on the impact of technology on their oral history tradition.
Because by definition history requires time and time together, as well as the willingness of a tradition over and use our imagination. It's good, stories of your family and your employees... provide a sense of continuity between generations have a thread of time and life over place moves.
I have a shelf full of books from and about Africa. Among them are books of African tales bearing wisdom of ancestors to the modern day.
There is a large discrepancy between popular stories about Africa ("it's dark, exotic, and war torn") and I brought stories which after I lived and worked five years in Africa. I am concerned by the popular perception of the United States of Africa as this place (only) the war, poverty, hunger and tribal dispute-AIDS crisis. Granted the African Nations and the African continent have great difficulties and problems continue to resolve, but all make up for what I want to understand people, the warm heart of Africa, that as the essence of being human... hit me felt for me at all, but very civilized non-primitive and humane.
Visit Janet grace Riehl blog "Riehl life: village of wisdom for the 21st century" see http://www.riehlife.com for more ideas and information about how to connect to through the arts culture across generations, and within the family. Read also sample poems and other background information from "view relationships: A poet's diary" to Janet's website.
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