The folktales project
is a process to document
the valuable
and rich oral history
of Malawians
and pass it down
to the children
of the next generation.
The tradition of storytelling
is dying, so we decided
to collect folktales,
because of the richness
of traditional stories
in Malawi.
To collect the folktales,
we divided the country
into clusters
according to language,
because we're looking at
a oral tradition.
We collected, in total,
about 257 stories.
This is something
that we are proud to have
at our National Library,
and we look forward to having
all these being shared
across the country.
After collecting
the folktales,
we had a challenge in terms of
accessibility of the material
that we had collected
and came up with
the storytelling project,
where every Saturday
we conduct these
storytelling sessions
at the National Library
for young people.
To organise a storytelling
session, firstly they will
come with their children
to the children's library
and register, then we
check progress on their
reading scores.
Storytelling involves
taking the children
that come to the library
back to a strange land
of talking animals,
where the heroic boys
and girls
are saving their villages.
When you are telling stories,
it's a form of interaction.
It makes you happy
when you share things
from yourself.
The success
of the Folktales Project
is that we've managed
to secure or preserve
the folktales which
would otherwise
have been forgotten or lost.
Storytelling has so much
to offer.
It has helped to develop
an understanding
and appreciation
for other cultures
of the people that are living
together with us
here in Malawi.