Fifteen youths from African immigrant families (aged 14-24) recently underwent a six-week workshop on African storytelling traditions in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, aimed teaching the elements of African storytelling traditions in a bid to reconnect them to their roots and into a deeper understanding of their dual heritage.
The workshop was organised by the New Immigrant Multi-Service (NIM) Center Inc, a Boston-based non-profit organisation.
Through interactive experiences, creative writing assignments, readings, public speaking exercises and performances , the participants explored the elements, forms and cultural significance of storytelling across diverse African cultures at the intensive programme held at 1220 River Street, Hyde Park in central Boston.
During the programme, the workshop’s seven faculty members sought to teach cultural pride and creative writing skills and instill a strong sense of community in the participants, reminding them that their stories were important and encouraging them to write and share their own stories.
In specific terms, the participants were taught key topics like, Oral Tradition and Performance, Storytellers and Griots, the Art of Storytelling in Today’s World, Proverbs, Riddles and Wise Sayings, Animal Tales and Trickster Stories, Exploring Identity Through Stories and many other approaches to storytelling that make African storytelling a unique experience.
Bringing the workshop to an end last Saturday, the Executive Director of NIM Center, Mr Godwin Nnanna observed that storytelling was one of the great attributes of leaders, citing great leaders like Martin Luther King Jnr. and Nelson Mandela as leaders who had a gift for storytelling and who had deployed their narrative skills shape the struggles of their people for freedom and justice.
‘Leaders are great storytellers. The expectation is that you will occupy leadership positions, whether it is in business or politics, civil rights or religious circles, it is very important that you understand the power of storytelling’, he said.
Among the faculty members are Godwin Nnanna who is the Executive Director of NIM Center, James Eze, who is a poet and writer (author of dispossessed, goosebumps and I Touched a Dream); Dr. Godknows Osarhiaekhimen, Prof. Agnes Ezeji, Mr. Charles Awodu, Prof. Edith Awogu-Maduagwu and Mrs. Nkechi Abraham.
Giving insight into the workshop, Nnanna said that the workshop treated topics like African proverbs and wise sayings. ‘James was very helpful to us in that regard. Most of the students even went on to craft their own proverbs. Some of those proverbs still ring in my head today. They harvested proverbs from different African contexts and we would want them to keep that tradition by enriching their expressions with wise sayings and proverbs. We also treated stories as medicine and Dr. Godknows tried to help us understand how stories could serve as medicine’, he explained.
The workshop is an interventionist effort by NIM Center, with the sponsorship of the City of Boston, to keep youths from the African immigrant community meaningfully engaged during the summer.
Nnanna expressed profound gratitude to the Mayor of the City of Boston, Michelle Wu and her team for sponsoring the program and thanked all the faculty members who devoted their time and talent to give African youths in Boston a taste of their storytelling heritage.
