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Volunteers and Community |
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community libraries & oral tradition
Kwahu South District, August 2013 - 'storytelling is a vital constituent of traditional culture; traditional stories often leave a lasting impression on the minds of children. As a result, stories transmitted by oral tradition serve an important purpose in preserving the traditions and customs enshrined in them while making those traditions come alive again' -Komasi, Mabel.
The preservation of cultural heritage through storytelling is essential for the preservation of a given community’s constitutive characteristics. An example of this rich tradition is the character of Anansie, a spider, a 'trickster'; Ananse stories are the most widely known and most thoroughly appreciated genre of storytelling in West-Africa.
This summer, SVG volunteers gathered Anansie books and slides and joined 'mobile libraries', organising story telling sessions in villages, schools, and community libraries around the Kwahu Districts.
An Anansie story would be told, and then kids would ask and be asked questions in regars to the story.
© svg 2013
An approximate number of 500 children were reached during the first month.
At SVG we appreciate story-telling as a traditional pedagogical instrument with various educational, psychological, socio-cultural and other benefits beyond its value as sheer entertainment.
The program aims to play a role against the decline -due to their neglect and preference for new forms of multimedia entertainment and the influx of American and European folktales- of these rich forms of oral tradition.
These activities take place alongside our ongoing work at community libraries such as the Obo and Obomeng libraries, both in the Kwahu South District.
They are part of SVG's wider support for educational activities in the District, which also include the donation of educational materials -books and others -to 15 Primary Schools in the area.
The Obo Community Library now serves a community of nearly 3000
© svg 2013
