THE FADING ART OF STORY TELLING IN TANZANIA

There really is no limit for the age you have to be to sit at the feet of an elder and have them tell you captivating stories.

Story-telling is a tradition and ancient art in all of Africa, Tanzania is no exception. So why is it that traditional story-telling is a fading art here? 

The only public space I know of that has story-telling for children is the Soma Book Café. Only one consistent place in the whole of Dar es Salaam. I tell stories to children from impoverished backgrounds.  All I would do is gather a group of kids from a neighbourhood with the permission of their guardians, then have a story session with snacks. I’d tell a story that I then invited them to discuss and ask questions about, and intriguing conversations would flourish out of this.

I once tried to do this with a puppet I personally went to a tailor to make. I named my puppet Dada Tumaini, meaning Sister Hope in Kiswahili. Not only that, but I tried her out several times with an audience. It was a disaster. I found out the hard way that ventriloquism is not for me. I was inspired by Jim Henson’s Muppets and Lamb Chop, the puppet created by Shari Lewis (I always giggle to myself when I think of her because she must have quite a naughty sense of humour to name her knitted talking lamb ‘Lamb Chop’). But my puppeteering attempt did not go well with any group of kids, so Dada Tumaini has since retired to a storage room at home.

My inspiration and passion for story-telling began with watching a renowned storyteller from Ethiopia known affectionately as Ababa Tesfaye when I was a child. Ababa Tesfaye is a national hero in Ethiopia. He passed away at the age of 94 in 2017 and remains a well-loved legend. Ababa Tesfaye was so compelling in his art as a storyteller that he hardly needed anything to become one of the greatest icons of Abyssinia. When you watched him tell stories on television, he just sat in a chair, wearing ordinary clothes with a plain blue background. The pictures that occupied his stories that were usually about talking animals and carried a moral were simple and made on a black chalk board with white chalk. But Ababa Tesfaye’s stories were riveting! He was expressive, he gave the animal characters special voices. His animated facial expressions alone were enough to entertain you. He was wonderful.

We should have at least one great storyteller we broadcast across the nation and revive this art that was once so common in our villages and amongst our ancestors. Our children should have a national hero they can meet at school to talk about or reminisce about fondly 30 years from now.

Why are we not providing these kinds of platforms? I subscribe to DSTV (our continent’s cable television) and on all the mainland Tanzanian channels provided there I do not see any children’s programs or story-telling on a regular week day. It is not on our radio channels, either.

Where are our story-tellers, puppeteers, child entertainers? It should be a national quest to find them. And give them a platform. Collaboration is important. Because some have the will, but not the talent. And some have the talent but not the funding. And some have the funding but don’t know about the bureaucracy or the process to access a national platform.

But we can start small. In your families, in your neighbourhoods, in your schools. Let us keep the tradition of story-telling alive.