Storytelling

Afrocentrism is embedded into Black culture. Many elders identified storytelling and communal sharing as one of the key features of an Afrocentric way of knowledge sharing. It is a means of holding community, building community, nurturing as a community, and nurturing each other within a community. Those types of principles support each other. They are individual gifts and these gifts help to uplift each other.

Many of the Black elders expressed their disappointment with the lack of research and understanding regarding mental health in the Black community. Moreover, the lack of adequate services and the over-medicalization in the Western models of care leaving behind the value and the healing power of Afrocentric knowledge sharing. Many of the elders expressed a holistic approach that included looking at the social and systemic root causes related to Black mental health. Therefore, returning to Afrocentric ways of knowing and a community-oriented approach is one of the ways that mental health approaches can become more culturally appropriate and holistic.

Traditional African stories provide an opportunity to explore, deepen, and reaffirm positive African cultural values. They also act to bring communities together around shared experiences. Storytelling is often carried in oral vessels of drama, vivid imagination, laughter, and sometimes tears. Always, African stories are reinforcing reminders of traditional collective responsibility and shared expectations of moral behavior. Stories are inter-generational interactions and information sharing from Grandma and Grandpa handed down to the children and grandchildren.

African stories can strengthen self-esteem and cultural pride and can act as buffers against the stressors and challenges to identify (especially for young people of African descent in their formative years).

Ananse goes to lunch (How Spider got his small waist)

A vivid and funny description of the greed of Ananse the spider to accept three different invitations to dinner. Strings attached to his waist are meant to alert him when the food was ready. Because of his greed, he, unfortunately, got caught in the tugging and pulling from each of the three reminder strings tied around his waist and perished in agonizing pain. Greed.

Ananse and Turtle (Don't be greedy and selfish)

A riveting tale of Anase and Turtle and food, Ananse is unwilling to share his meal with Turtle who was visiting him, and concocts a series of strategies to consume all the meal and send Turtle home hungry.
Turtle in turn designs his own underwater scheme to get revenge on Ananse to teach him not to be selfish and greedy.

Akpan and the Palm Tree (it's not good to be lazy)

A young man, Akpan, is coddled and spoiled by his mother as the only boy amongst 4 siblings. He eats, sleeps, and relaxes all day while others in his village work hard. He is resented and rebuked by his siblings and people in the village as being lazy and spoiled. He does not care.
He meets a beautiful girl and wishes to marry her, but she rejects him because of his laziness. Akpan tries to concoct a scheme using the Wise Elder to convince the young woman to marry him without actually working. The scheme backfires and Akpan is turned into a Palm Tree. Lots of lessons around laziness, dishonesty and not following the advice and instructions of our Elders.

Ananse and the Wisdom Bowl (Importance of sharing)

Before Ananse became an earthly being he resided in heaven with his father Nyame, the God King. Nyame was responsible for the Bowl of Wisdom and passed it to Ananse when he became of age with the clear instructions to share his wisdom with humans. He refuses to share and ends up being taught valuable lessons of patience, humility, and sharing by a small child on earth.

Skip to content