Shall I tell you something? African fables for a culture of peace
December 16, 2010
In Africa, the traditional art of story-telling is still very significant. It is a priceless form of mediation and cultural preservation.
Most of us remember the days when our parents or grand-parents told us entertaining stories from the ancient times. Ndiaye Ibrahima from Senegal does so too. The ten fables he relates to us in this Learning by Ear series were told to him by his grand-mother and serve mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence.
Animals play an important part in these fables – the tall and the small, the strong and the weak, the brave and the cowardly. Join the lion, the hyena and the pigeon, the elephant, the snake and many others in their adventures. Far from leaving us unmoved, the situations they are confronted with and the conflicts they have to solve sound indeed familiar to most of us...
Listen in and enjoy, for as the saying goes: “Thus our fable goes to sea, and he who will smell its perfume first, will go to heaven.”
Learning by Ear is available in six languages: English, Kiswahili, French, Hausa, Portuguese and Amharic. It is supported by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office.