Showing posts with label proverbs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proverbs. Show all posts

Friday, February 23, 2018

An African Storytelling Event in Red Wing, Minnesota

On February 17, I went to Red Wing, Minnesota, to make a presentation on African Storytelling. The event, organized by the Red Wing Public Library and the Goodhue County Historical Society, was well publicized.

I highlighted the significance of Africa as the cradle of the human race, where language and storytelling began, together with other forms of folklore. The evolution of human consciousness and the capacity to reflect on life, the world, relationships, and values found expression in folklore. I shared several proverbs to illustrate this point.

Then I told the tale of "Spider and the Calabash of Knowledge" and "The Lion's Advice," both from West African Folktales by Jack Berry, as well as "The Chief's Daughter," from West African Folktales by Steven H. Gale. We spent the last ten minutes on questions and answers.

Although I had visited Red Wing several times, over the years, this was my first presentation there. Lindsey, Education & Outreach Coordinator at the Goodhue County Historical Society, planned my visit well. At her suggestion, I brought copies of Matengo Folktales and Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences and people were able to buy them. That makes me feel that I left a legacy beyond my one hour presentation.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

My UMR Presentation on Ethics in Folklore

I have just returned from Rochester, Minnesota, where I gave a lecture on "Folklore as Expression of Ethics: European and African Examples." The lecture, which I mentioned on this blog,  was part of the University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR) Connects program.

I learned about the UMR Connects during a meeting of the board of Rochester International Association (RIA) of which I am a member. I offered to propose a topic to the UMR Connects for a presentation, in line with the request by the UMR Connect that the focus for April be ethics. As a folklorist, I chose to focus on "Folklore as Expression of Ethics: European and African Examples."

I was pleased to share with the audience how African and European folklore mediates ethical issues and concerns. I presented several African proverbs and two folktales, and discussed European folktales such as "Snow White" and "The Emperor's New Clothes." I also cited the Poetic Edda and The Kalevala. In regard to their concern with ethics, the similarities between the African and European folklore traditions were obvious.

After my talk, audience members asked questions. One of these was whether there were contradictory messages in proverbs. I said that was, indeed, the case, and I offered examples from the Swahili tradition. I explained that proverbs embody a deep understanding of social and other phenomena and are therefore used by the elders, because these are sophisticated enough to know which proverb applies to which situation.

I had a great time with the people of Rochester. I look forward to being there again on April 29, when I will be participating in the World Festival organized by the RIA. I will be participating as an author, talking about my books, and as a cultural consultant. I welcome everyone.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

An Evening of African Food and Folklore

In the evening of February 28, a number of people gathered in Brooklyn Center to share African folklore. The event was a joint initiative of the Kofa Foundation and me, as founder and owner of Africonexion: Cultural Consultants. We wanted to mark the last day of Black History Month and to recognize the work of the Kofa Foundation.

The Kofa Foundation was started to support victims of the ebola crisis in West Africa. Africonexion promotes cultural awareness, helping individuals, institutions, and organizations understand and deal with issues stemming from cultural differences.



We started the evening with delicious food prepared by the Kofa Foundation. Then, I stood up to make my presentation.






As I have been doing in my recent presentations, I gave a preview of Africa as the cradle of the human race and civilization. I emphasized the significance of oral culture and its implications, to foster an appreciation of the ingenuity of non-literate people.





I illustrated African traditional wisdom through proverbs and two tales: the Haitian tale of Frog and the well featured in  Harold Courlander's A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore and "The Monster in the Rice Field," featured in my Matengo Folktales.





















Decontee Kofa, founder and director of the Kofa Foundation, seen in the photo on the left, hosted the event and announced that she would soon host a similar event. Lori, the lady in the middle, told me about the Transformative Circle, an organization that involves "diverse people coming together to foster greater understanding and appreciation for our community, cultural differences, and customs." She said she would like me to make a presentation to them.

I had brought copies of my books--Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences and Matengo Folktales--and people were able to see and buy them, with proceeds going to the Kofa Foundation.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

A Storytelling Event

This evening, as I had reported on this blog, I went to Brooklyn Center to make a presentation on African and African Diaspora storytelling. I had a the opportunity to express my desire to help illuminate the African and African Diaspora contribution to world culture.

In addition to mentioning and commenting on several African and Jamaican proverbs, I told several folktales; a Gurensi one, which I had told before, a Haitian one, and one from Zora Neale Hurston's Mules and Men. I did this to demonstrate how our ancestors thought about the world and the human condition.

The tales in Mules and Men that account for why Black people and Black women in particular work so hard harking back to the days of slavery, are particularly significant. They project with a touch of humour the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

I told my audience that I want to make such presentations in the future, not only on storytelling, but also on cultural differences, along the lines of my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. I said that my experience as a cultural consultant has taught me that there is a great need for on-going conversations about cultural differences in the world.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

African Storytelling at St. Olaf College

This evening, following an invitation by Karibu, a St. Olaf College student organization, I made a presentation on African storytelling. I am passionate about sharing the heritage of the African people of which I am deeply proud. I have done this in the past, at St. Olaf College and other places.

This evening, as usual, I began by highlighting the central significance of Africa as the cradle of the human race. This has important implications, including the fact that Africa is where language and storytelling originated. I went on to briefly explain the functions of storytelling, such as mediating the human endeavour to interpret and understand the world and the human condition.

In order to illustrate the African way of philosophizing about life, I discussed three proverbs: i) Before you cross the river, don't insult the crocodile's mouth. 2) Even though you may be taller than your father, you still are not his equal. 3) It is because of man that the blacksmith makes weapons. The last two proverbs, from the Ashanti, are published in Harold Courlander's A Treasury of African Folklore.

After this, I told two folktales: "The Chief's Daughter," from the Gurensi people of Burkina Faso, which is published in Steven H. Gale's West African Folktales, and "The Coming of the Yams," an Ashanti tale published in Harold Courlander's A Treasury of African Folklore. Both tales are complex and profound meditations on the dilemmas of life.

In my evolution as a folklorist, I have come to believe that when I am invited to perform folktales, I should never read them to the audience. If I do not know the tale, I read it in advance, and then perform it in front of the audience. That way, I feel I am staying true to the reality of oral performance. The Ashanti tale I told today is one I did not know before. I read it a short while before performing it.