Storytelling at Dzaleka

Storytelling at Dzaleka

Storytelling at Dzaleka

Storytelling at Dzaleka

September 2018 - present

Malawi

This project faciliated the sharing of traditional folktales from displaced people of the many tribes and nations residing at Dzaleka refugee camp.

Storytelling at Dzaleka

September 2018 - present

Malawi

We each carry our culture wherever we go, but sometimes it needs a place or occasion to come alive. The Dzaleka Storytelling Project grew from this idea, a community project to reinforce the cultural identities of residents in Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa, Malawi, by documenting and sharing traditional folktales from older generations to younger. Rei Foundation has partnered with local community arts organisation Tumaini Letu and the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO (MNCU) to develop this project, which reflects UNESCO’s focus on helping displaced communities keep traditional knowledge and stories alive.

Over forty participants were recruited from the camp and surrounding villages and trained in the skills needed to inventory, record, transcribe and perform traditional stories from people of different ethnic backgrounds living in Dzaleka camp. Interviewers went out into the camp to meet with elders, recording stories from several different cultural groups. These stories will be transcribed and added to the national inventory of folktales, preserving the intangible heritage of Dzaleka residents alongside that of their Malawian neighbours.

Of the collected stories, several were chosen for development of performances. A group of actors were trained by local storyteller Shadreck Chikoti. Shortly the gathered stories will be brought to life in a series of folktales sessions for local school children both inside and outside Dzaleka. Tumaini Letu are doing an excellent job of collecting and performing stories in a complicated environment.
One of the biggest successes has been the discovery of young artists who have showed an interest in performing the traditional stories to school children. Another success has been the response of the older generation, many of whom had previously thought that their children and grandchildren had no interest in their folktale tradition and their heritage in general, and have found, through this project that the opposite is true.

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