Week 8- “I tell stories to wake up stories in others.” (Gcina)

“To tell stories, listen to your heart. Open up your heart and let the stories flow in like a river.” (Quote said by a speaker at the festival) 

 On February 22, the University of Johannesburg Storytelling Festival was put on Gcina Mhlope, a local storyteller, and the UJ Department of Childhood Education-Foundation Phase students as part of a service learning program. Schools from around Soweto were invited to the university to participate in the event.

The program began with Gcina talking about appreciation songs. She told the audience that when someone does something well (like the dishes without breaking one or graduates from school) that the family will sing the names of the ancestors in celebration of who the person is and what they have done well. The theme was “Speak Your Language” so she had students come up to the stage and say, “Love in your language” in the different languages represented in the audience.

Gcina telling her story. 

Artists, dancers, performers, musicians, and other storytellers from the community were invited to take part in the event. One act was a woman who talked about her book series PitterPat the Crazee Caterpillar. She discussed the importance of developing your imagination. Next, students from some of the schools performed for the group. They read from books, acted out scenes, and danced. Also, dancers and storytellers told stories in their home language, although I couldn’t understand the words, I could feel the stories from the performances.

The festival was in the name of Nozincwadi, a woman known as the “Mother of Books.” She bought a boy a book because he couldn’t afford it and in return the boy read to her. She asked, “Where does the river come from?” He told her. She said, “I know these books are so clever like the elders in my village.” She was encouraged to go to school and learn to read. And she did. The lesson Gcina wanted everyone to take is that you are never too old to learn.

Preservice teachers telling stories to the kids

The preservice teachers also performed stories (oral tradition)

Face Painting

Artistic Expression

We had a hosted lunch in the VIP area. I met Yvonne Chaka Chaka, a South African music legend and philanthropist. She was the keynote speaker for the day. She wishes everyone chose to empower and educate themselves. She didn’t choose her family or her experience, but that she is the woman she is because of the strengths of her mother. She worries that we allow mediocrity because we are competing with the best, we are competing with the world. We can do this by nurturing our children. She said, when she was entering the music business she decided, “no one will play a fool out of Chaka Chaka because I will know how to read my contract, no one will take me for granted.” She ended with the question; she hopes that everyone ask themselves daily, “What have you done today to make yourself feel proud?”

Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Gcina, and me

I felt connected to her words…I would never have gotten where I am without my mom.

That night I ended up getting sick…for the next week or so I had to graciously accept help and support from those around me.