Folktales and Folksongs Outreach Tour Concludes Across 13 Districts in Malawi
14 January 2024
Lilongwe, Malawi - From 30 October to December 16, 2023, the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO (MNCU) led an outreach tour across 13 districts in Malawi.
The tour screened folktale and folksong documented across Malawi since 2013, alongside a collection of digitised historical footage.
The cultural endeavour was organised by the partnership of MNCU, the National Library Service (NLS), Music Crossroads Malawi, and National Records and Archives Services of Malawi (NRASM), in partnership with Rei Foundation Limited. Around 5,000 attended screenings across 13 diverse locations, demonstrating the widespread enthusiasm for the videos and historical footage.
The tour formed part of two broader cultural preservation projects: Safeguarding Malawian Folktales and Folksongs through Documentation and Transmission, Re-Housing, and Digitization of 16mm Film at the National Records and Archives Services of Malawi. Through these projects, the partners are documenting Malawi’s folktales, folksongs and historical footage so they can be shared with future generations.
Folktales and folksongs are an important component of Malawi's intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The aim of the tour was to preserve folktales and folksongs by sharing them with younger generations.
Ms Mary Pearson, who attended the screening in Mchinji, commented: "The folktales are very important now, as children do not know the folktales. "We were very exited with this screening".
A Mobile Library Van Offers Hands-On Learning for Children Facing Book Accessibility Challenges NLS’s mobile library van accompanied the tour. Children who have difficulty accessing booksvisited it and were able to experience how a library operates.
NLS, in cooperation with MNCU and Rei Foundation will soon launch a database within the National Library to share the documented folktales, folksongs and digitised historical footage more widely.. This platform will enable the public to easily access a large number of vital cultural and historical videos.
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