By Wende Luvinga
I love stories. Of all kinds. Most of my free time, if I am not listening to one, then I am telling one. If I am not reading one, then I am writing one. My love of stories started at a young age. I grew up listening to tales from various parts of Africa every evening. My favorites were the sing along ones where the teller would sing a song that would summon us to sit around and we would sing with the teller. These stories had lessons to be learnt. When we had access to books, my mother would also read me Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Snow White. Some of these stories were hard to grasp, but I enjoyed them all the same.
I am from the Hehe tribe in Tanzania, and very proud of our history. My grandfather and great uncle proudly told us the story of Chief Mkwawa (1855- 1898), a Hehe tribal leader who opposed the German colonization. Through a brilliant plan and with intelligence, Mkwawa’s armies defeated the German forces in a battle which has gone down as one of the most successful battles in military history (this is also according to my great uncle). Up until that time, the stories of the European purported the black African as an intellectual inferior. There were several studies which were partly used to justify the European invasion of the African continent. They painted Africans as savages who needed to be guided like children into civilization. The battle challenged that narrative.
For generations, the single story for Africa has been one of despair. In the early 2000’s, The Economist infamously labelled Africa the ‘hopeless continent’ because of over two long decades of war, corruption and bad governance on the continent. More than a decade later, the same magazine cover features an illustration of a boy flying a rainbow-coloured kite the shape of the continent, with the title “Africa rising”. Between being a “hopeless continent” to a “rising” one, there are complex stories yet to be captured and told.
As a member of the African diaspora, I am neither pretending that Africa’s many serious problems should be played down or ignored, nor encouraging the promotion of only positive images. However, I believe that as Africans we should be able to tell the stories that are important to us. We need to diversify the larger narrative about Africa through popular culture i.e. stories, novels, movies, fashion magazines etc.
[…]
“…It is only the story that can continue beyond the war and the warrior.
It is the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave fighters.
It is the story . . . that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars
into the spikes of the cactus fence.
The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.
Does the blind man own his escort? No, neither do we the story;
rather it is the story that owns us and directs us.”
Chinua Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah (1987)
Republished from Medium.
