Safeguarding of Nkhonde, Tumbuka

and Chewa proverbs and folktales

An Insider’s View: Ms. Chimwemwe Sumani
Role in the Project
Ms. Sumani has been the Information Technology Specialist and Head of ICT, Audiovisual and
Culture Departments for the Malawi National Library Service (MNLS) since September, 2009.
She served as technical personnel for the UNESCO project’s activities in Malawi. In addition to
her computer and networking responsibilities, she is committed to collecting, digitizing,
documenting, and disseminating the valuable and rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage
of Malawi.

Why The Malawi National Library Service Storytelling Program?

“Folktales are central to the customs and beliefs of the people of Malawi.
When I was 6 years old, my family and I happily sat around the fire listening to
folktales told by my Mother. This oral tradition is all but vanishing in recent
years due to the advent of technology—TVs in my case, aging of community
figures who can deliver live performances as well as changes in lifestyle… This is
what made us start storytelling sessions at the library, with an aim of bringing it
back to life.
“Basically, a storytelling session encompasses an array of activities that
enhance children’s knowledge of traditional African Storytelling. Children
answer the W3H questions [who, what, when, and how] to analyze the narrative
structure. The narrator tells 3 stories per session.”

How has the program grown?

“At first, we used to go and collect the children from different points [around the
city]. Now they come to the library on their own and the number of children
per session has been gradually increasing from 20 to 250. We document every
storytelling session to preserve it for the next generation.”

How has the program enhanced childhood learning and education?

“By Introducing storytelling programs at the library, children have become more
and more interested in reading.
“MNLS has Storytelling programs every Saturday. These sessions start at 10:30
and finish at 12:00, but children arrive as early as 7:30AM. As soon as they
come, we take them to the children’s section where they are assisted to select
books to read according to their classes/grades….After that we take them to the
room where storytelling sessions are done. In this room the kids are given
chances to go in front and read aloud, narrate poems, dramas, songs, riddles,
word games, etc. This is facilitated by the early childhood reading program
librarian.
 “As this is being done, the storytelling session moderator interviews the ‘agogo’
(granny) in order to learn lessons and relevance/importance of the stories before
they are told to the children. Every session has 3 folktales, and at the end of
each story children raise their hands (without being asked…) to respond to the
first question which is: “what have you learnt from this story?”
“At the end of each storytelling sessions we give prizes to winning teams,
individuals in different competitions some of which include drama, read aloud and
look, spelling bee, singing, dancing, word games, drawing, poems, stories.
Finally, we give them juices and let them go home or continue reading in the
children’s library.”
“Once a month, we organize prizes for story writing competitions where
children are asked to write folktales they have heard in that month or their own
stories; illustrate the story and write the advice they got from that particular story.
This helps the children to be creative, attentive as the stories are being narrated
to them, and it also improves their writing and language skills (such as
grammar, vocabulary, prediction, sequencing, comprehension, story structure
and recall) as much as it helps us evaluate our program.”

What broader impacts has the program made on children and families?
“It has brought a new and better [mode] of entertainment in their homes.” As one
child said, “To us storytelling is like TV in our minds.”
“It has brought peace within families by bringing them together. It has
brought peace in families that always used to quarrel about children’s
whereabouts. These children used to attend local cinemas where children are
often exposed to uncensored movies—nowadays when they come back from
school, they are either preparing/perfecting themselves for story writing
competitions…or at the library simply to study.”
“There are no more street kids in City Centre where the library is situated. This is
because the storytelling team went around collected them and introduced them
to storytelling sessions. Now they are working hard to learn how to read and
write so that they can win prizes. Eighty percent of the children have been
enrolled in government primary schools, 15% are too young to be enrolled, and
the remaining 5% are waiting for the next academic year because they came too
late [in the schoolyear].”
“We are also hearing of local storytelling competitions.”

How has the program impacted the library?

“We now provide facilities for the study of, and training in, the principles,
procedures, and techniques of identifying, collecting and handling Indigenous
Knowledge in audiovisual formats. We now can organise, preserve, and make
available the nation's folktale material in oral form for the benefit of scholars,
researchers, advanced students, government personnel and the general public.
[The program has also] promoted regular visits to the library by the children and
their families and other patrons enquiring about the availability of folktales in
different formats.”
Why is it important for the storytelling to continue?
“To us as Malawians, storytelling is integrated into everyday life and as such, it
plays a major role in shaping people’s lives. Storytelling not only entertains; it
also helps the children, in particular, to discern the good values of life. As
an adult, despite the advent of television, storytelling is a better and more
humane community builder….[The program helps] to bring back the Storytelling
Tradition in Malawi by collecting, preserving and disseminating traditional forms
of folktales in all the languages spoken in Malawi. My wish is that the program
should not only continue but it should also spread out to the remaining parts of
the country.”

An Insider’s View: Mr. Ephraim L Gwazanga Nkhoma

Role in the Project
Mr. Nkhoma is a Storyteller at the National Library Services Headquarters in Lilongwe, Malawi.

How did you become involved with the National Library Services’ Storytelling
Programme?
“It was in 2015 when the Malawi National Library Services advertised for
Storytellers. I applied, got shortlisted, called for the interviews, attended the
interviews and, fortunately for me I got successful.
“Thereafter, I was offered the task of Telling Stories to children of different ages
at the Malawi National Library Services Headquarters in Lilongwe, the Capital
City of Malawi, from 1st August 2015 to date. Since then, I bring three Folktales
per Session to the children.”

What led you to become a storyteller?

“I come from a Christian family, and I spent most of my childhood with my
Maternal Grandparents who were both strong and dedicated Christians.
“Despite both being educated and progressive farmers, each evening after our
last meal, my grandparents could take turns in telling us different Stories about
human character, animal behaviour and language, nature and so forth.
“They also had herds of cattle and goats, chicken, dogs and orchard. Many times
they could also use what they had to tell us different Stories so that we, the
Grandchildren, could easily understand their Storytelling.
“In each Storytelling, they made sure the Stories were so exciting so that we
could participate or take part in the Storytelling. As such, each one of us
developed the desire to listening to Storytelling from our Grandparents and
anyone who could be able to tell us Stories.
“But we were also given the condition of reporting back to them how many
people we had shared the Stories we learnt from them. Sometimes we could also
be asked to meditate the Stories which they had already told us just to test our
memory status.
 “At the end of each Storytelling, we could be asked questions and lessons learnt
from each Storytelling. Because of this, we were able to keep the Stories and
narrate them. And for me that’s how I became a Storyteller. My family
background has it.”

Can you describe a typical Storytelling Session at the Library ?

“Yes. In March 2017, within the Storytelling I told a story in which I mentioned
three characters which made a King’s Daughter get healed from a very long
illness when nobody expected her to recover. The characters were:
‘PITA’ meaning ‘GO’
‘BWERERA’ meaning ‘COME BACK’
and
‘BWEREZANSO’ meaning ‘REPEAT’
“The children liked this story very much and asked me to repeat it during the next
Storytelling Session. And since then especially those children who listened to
that Storytelling, chose to address or nickname me as ‘AGOGO BWEREZANSO’
meaning ‘GRANDPA REPEAT’.
“In that Story they learnt that even an honest smile can heal a person as it
happened with the King’s Daughter.”

Can you share a memorable storytelling experience?

“Yes. On Tuesday, 9th April 2019, I had a Storytelling Session to one of the
Private Schools in the Capital City organized by the Malawi National Library
Services.
“I had told them a Story about how three Brothers escaped death one by one
from the wrath of their own community. The features I mentioned for the
Storytelling and the way the Story was narrated made the children to be so
excited including their teachers.
“At the end, both the pupils and their teachers asked and invited me to come
again for another Storytelling Session. What I discovered was that in their School
Curriculum they did not have Storytelling Sessions. And so they found this very
good and incorporative in their class lessons.
“The other moment is when we had the commemoration of the International Day
of Storytelling which in Malawi was held on Friday 12th April 2019.
“Due to the cross section of the people and dignitaries who were invited for the
function, it gave me the impression that children of all ages need to be impacted
on knowledge even through Storytelling.
“Parents have the duty and responsibility to advise their children. And the other
viable way is through the Storytelling. I was so touched and really impressed.
Wherever necessary, I also dramatize the Storytelling like what I did on this day.”
Why is it important that the folktales are shared with the children?
“Any activity that happens it’s passed from generation to generation, so it’s
very, very important that parents or the elderly continue giving stories to their
children. Because if this is not done, it means we are not passing the information
from the generation to another generation. So I feel that it’s very, very important
that folktales must continue to be shared with the children. In addition to that,
storytelling closes the gap of relationship between parents and their children. It
also helps them to unite and understand each other as a family.
“Children are the generation which takes over any activity from parents.
Previously, our Grandparents relied on oral tradition, remembered history and,
later with the introduction of books due to modern technology, a lot of Folktales
have been put into books.
“But Storytelling helps to close the relationship gap between parents and their
children since it gives a platform of participation and interaction. It helps families
to unite, understand each other and to prepare children how to be responsible
when they grow up. It has to be passed from generation to generation.”

Is there anything else you’d like to share that you feel people should know or
understand about the importance of Storytelling or Storytellers in Malawi?
“Yes. Malawi needs to identify more Storytellers, even conducting trainings for
capacity building. In the very past during the time of our Grandparents, there
were Periods during Classes for Storytelling in Primary Schools.
“But today it’s no longer there. It mostly relies on those parents and people at
home who have the zeal to carry on with the Storytelling for their children and
different groups just like what The National Library Services is doing in Malawi.
“We encourage the Malawi National Library Services to continue conducting and
offering the Storytelling Sessions so that this can be restored into our children as
it were.”