Story telling.

We have had an amazing time in Senegal. We went to hear a talk about "Story Telling" from a well know Senegalese, Daour Wade. This was especially interesting to me and one of my classes where I have talked about oral cultures. Story telling goes way back to antiquity before we had any form of writing. Story telling was how culture was passed on relating to traditions, hunting, morals, geography etc.
First, Daour told us about Senegalese values and he did this by explaining he meaning of key words. "Kollare" referred to doing good deeds. If someone did you a good deed you should never forget and you should reciprocate. When someone has helped you out you and that person become bonded and this is called "Wollare".  He covered many more words and then told us a story.

There was a village and the harvest failed due to drought. On old women went in to the forest and there she met a lion. She told the lion about their predicament and the lion led the woman to a small lake. The woman drank from the lake and then returned to her village and it started to rain. One day the woman was sitting with her friends and she talked about her meeting with the lion and she complained about the horrible smell of the lion. The woman did not know that the lion had snug into the village and overheard her.
The next year there was a drought again and the woman went into he forest to see if she could find the lion and ask for help again. She met the lion but this time the lion asked the woman to hit it on the head with an axe. After much insistence by the lion the woman finally hit the lion on the head with her axe. The woman went back to her village but it did not rain.
The next year again there was a drought and the woman went into the forest and met the lion. The lion asked if the woman could see the scar from the axe but she could not. Then the lion explained. The scar from the axe has healed but the scar in my brain from the words you spoke about my bad smell has not healed. And then the lion ate the woman.

The moral of the story of course is that you should think before you speak because words have power, they stick.

This was one of the stories he told us. I could have listened for hours.