Griot Fireside

Stories, interviews and living memory, credited to the people who carry them.

14 items

Podcast episodeMbuk Adama Idiok Awan: an Ibibio folktale (podcast)An episode of Mbaganire, an African folktales podcast: a story of jealousy and justice, told in Ibibio.
BookKɔsra Wɔn Nanabaa (Holidays with grandmother), in Asante TwiOdongo and Apiyo travel from the city to their grandmother’s fishing village by a great lake: a story of family, in Asante…
BookMitsitsin Iri: Labarin Wangari Maathai (A Tiny Seed), in HausaThe life of Wangari Maathai, from a girl on the slopes of Mount Kenya to the woman who inspired millions of trees,…
BookAdìyẹ àti Ọ̀ọ̀kùn (Chicken and Millipede), in YorubaTwo rivals, a football match and the start of an old enmity, told in Yoruba.
BookUSikhukhukazi noKhozi (Hen and Eagle), in isiXhosaWhy the hen scratches the ground and the eagle swoops on her chicks: an animal tale in isiXhosa.
BookuNozibele kanye nezinwele ezintathu (Nozibele and the three hairs), in isiZuluA girl lost at night outwits a dog with three hairs from her head, read aloud in isiZulu.
Bookአናንሲና ጥበብ (Anansi and Wisdom), in AmharicThe Ghanaian folktale of Anansi the spider and the pot of wisdom, read aloud in Amharic.
BookWatoto wa nta (Children of wax), in KiswahiliA Southern African folktale about children made of wax who must never go out in the sun, read aloud in Kiswahili.
BookKwa nini Viboko Hawana Nywele (Why hippos have no hair), in KiswahiliWhy the hippo has no hair and never strays far from water: an animal tale read aloud in Kiswahili.
VideoThe storytellers of Jemaa el-Fna, MarrakeshStorytellers, poets and musicians who have made a Marrakesh square a living stage for centuries.
VideoIfa: the verses of the Yoruba divination systemA vast oral literature of 256 odu and their verses, kept by babalawo priests in Nigeria and the diaspora.
VideoThe oral heritage of GeledeMasks, dances and chants in Yoruba that honour mothers, from the Yoruba-Nago of Benin, Nigeria and Togo.