We Must Be Our Own Storytellers

I believe in storytelling. I look at the world through the lens of stories. I believe that stories can change minds. I believe that stories can take away dignity and I believe that stories can also restore dignity. - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

First and foremost, narrative creates links between individuals and between individuals and concepts. One of the most effective tools that leaders have for influencing, instructing, and inspiring others is storytelling. Why are stories such a powerful tool for education? Stories communicate the shared values, history, and culture of a population

Rudine Sims Bishop says in “Reflections on the Development of African American Children’s Literature,” that in the 19th and 20th centuries a lot of books made Black characters seem less than other characters. Black people in those books were a joke. And Bishop says those books were likely not made for Black children. I was again reminded of this crucial fact when reading Viola Davis's book "Finding Me: A Memoir." I'll share that passage with you below. I am telling you the power of storytelling is real.

No one wanted to drink from the bubbla’ after me. Bubbla’ or bubbler was the Rhode Island term for water fountain. My classmates would always wait for the teacher to turn her head and whisper, “Yuck!! I’m not drinking after that nigga. You’re dirty.” This would both shut me down and anger me. One day I tried to rip the pretty, yellow dress off Maria, a Portuguese girl who used the word nigga with impunity. My teacher punished me. I tried to explain, but she said there was no explanation. This was a teacher I loved, for whom I stayed after school once and volunteered to clean the chalkboard. She was young and pretty. I felt she liked me. This, unfortunately, was an illusion. I created a phantom to survive.

We watched an American history filmstrip that day that had a blurb about slavery with pictures of Black people in slave quarters down south. Everyone laughed when the images came up and the voice-over said, “Black people or slaves at this time were illiterate. That means they couldn’t read or write.” The kids laughed and whispered, “You niggas can’t do anything.”

I stayed after class to ask my teacher one question. Despite being a “troublemaker,” despite pushing her once by accident, I was terrified as I waited until everyone was gone and quietly cleaned the entire chalkboard. She thanked me, and as I was leaving, I got up the courage to ask, “Miss, it’s not true, is it? Black people could read and write? They could, couldn’t they?”

She shook her head sadly and said, “No. I’m sorry, honey. They couldn’t.”

I left with my head down. She never explained to me or to the class that it was illegal during slavery to teach the enslaved to read and write. It was a way to keep them subjugated.

This teacher as many others only told the students one side of the story, failing to explain the realities of slavery and children are still being taught history this way to these days, the topic of slavery was barely brushed upon when I was studying and I am an African. I can only image how one would have felt as a child being taught your history that way. How many youngsters were fed this half-truth and made feel worthless and ashamed of who they were, as a result of hearing those lies about their own people? Young Viola, was looking up to this teacher who was an authoritative figure in her life, but all that woman did was to let her down, to make her fell bad about herself, while her work was to uplift and empower all the students under her care. I want to leave you with a quote that I heard from a recent interview with Eva Longoria, in which she stressed the need of each community to tell the historical and cultural truths from their own perspectives, "Never about us without us."

Yours truly,

The Queen Of Africa