The Spoken Word

Oral tradition is a very important part of West African culture. Although their languages have had a written form for generations, one still finds that a lot of importance is placed on story telling and oral communications. You can see this in everyday conversations. People will seldom get straight to the point; a conversation must begin with a detailed greeting to set a friendly tone.

I cane face to face with the impact that oral story telling can have when I had the opportunity to speak to 325 children at an international school here in Accra. I sat with each class in the elementary section, read a story and then answered questions. The kindergarteners were my toughest audience. In the photo on the left, I am reading "Chee Chee in Paradise" to one of the kindergarten classes. The children paid rapt attention. As soon as the last word of my story had escaped my lips, a young lady piped up: "But what about Chee Chee's brother?" It was a great question and an indication that the story had touched and captured her. Their feedback was so useful, so humbling.

I firmly believe that the process of the reading had a significant impact on the way that the children saw the story and it made me feel very protective of my story. I wanted to pull the books off of Amazon and sell them one by one, only to parents who signed a contract to read the story with expression and drama. Don't worry, that madness has since subsided. I am ready once more to trust the words and the images to do the job for me.