Author: ©️ Art Koroma
Africa has struggled for many years to try to redeem herself from being the target of bad press or negative publicity. As a result, the word “Africa” often conjures up images of famine, despair, and a primitive culture and mindset. The world has not moved on from its perception of Africa as a pitiful place.
The flourishing Africa, on the other hand, has not been brought to light. Africa, far from being the bleak place depicted in the media, has busy skylines, modern colleges, and sprawling shopping malls. African literature also contains some of the world’s most entertaining and thrilling stories.
To reintroduce Africa and the virtues within its tales, I’ve crafted an anthology that will promote learning through entertaining stories. I present “Virtues in African Fable Stories. I also demonstrate eloquence and the depth of my intellect by presenting interesting folktales that portrait Africa’s culture.
Moonlight Stories of Lokomasama is a collection of fictional stories, that reinforce Africans’ beliefs and philosophical wisdom. ‘The One Hundred and One Stories’ are jam-packed with action, adventure, and a deft combination of whimsy and humour that will pique the interest of young readers.
The book also highlights the diversity of African culture and provides a refreshing and educational alternative to the Western stories that have become so popular.
The book literally examines and addresses unhealthy behaviour like greed, pride, impatience, disobedience to authorities. And vouches for tolerance, meekness, persistence, clear thinking, and other practical skills in carrying out an assignment.
These stories are entertaining and sure to hold the interest of readers. Each story has a moral lesson and is appropriate to read to reader of all ages. It’s a beautiful collection of delightful stories about gods, genies, humans, animals, birds, and trees. The characters here are generally African but geographically hankered in Sierra Leonean. From time immemorial our ancestors have passed on knowledge and wisdom in the form of folktales, proverbs, and songs. Stories from the past are passed on to the younger generation by an elderly member of the family, probably a grandfather or grandmother. Who had also learnt these stories as a child. These stories portray the customs and traditions of our people before the coming of the white man to Africa.
The stories dwell on issues like polygamy, superstition, the importance of deities and many more. At home, the oldest member of the family would always take up the responsibility of telling stories to the younger ones. Children from different homes would gather around the fire and with the moon light from above, they would sit and listen to these interesting and fascinating tales.
Mostly, the stories are told by the grandfather who let the children sit at his feet and with many of them transported into the world of imagination. The night is usually calm, and the moon light is full and up in the sky. On some other nights, the children will file out like soldier ants into the village square and form circles and chain gangs to play “hide and seek,” while nocturnal insects and birds chirp and cheer from branches of trees in and around the village.
Young girls gather in twos and threes to play “Akra” clapping their hands, skipping, and moving their waist and legs to the rhythm. At times, abled young men test their strength on the wrestling arena, while flexible girls lithely move their waists in dance to the rhythm of the clapping hands. Babies crawl about or sleep peacefully on the mats spread on pavements outside the house under the protective eyes of their mothers who themselves sit with the fathers and the less daring children telling their stories and sucking in the cool night air.
Aged men and women relax in their hammock dreaming and reminiscing on old times when they too had been boys and girls, chasing one another up and down in the moonlight. Meanwhile, the boys and girls, move further away from the maddening crowd and from the watching eyes of elders into darker corners to do forbidden things; the more reasons why stories like these exist to keep such erring youths on the straight and narrow.
