Traditional African storytelling instils morals, shares traditions and customs, maintains cultural values while touches on social ethics.
The stories are also entertaining, especially for curious minds.
This Heritage Month, Soweto Theatre, in collaboration with Assitej South Africa, and Play Africa in partnership with Rand Merchant bank, are hosting for a “LIVE Storytelling” experience which will take place every Tuesday till December.
The shows will be streamed via the Soweto Theatre and the Assitej SA Facebook pages.
The programme is aimed at children age 4-8 and its core mission is to support children’s literacy and imagination while staying safe at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A host of professional and renowned storytellers have been earmarked to take the learners through a journey of oral storytelling that will inspire, entertain, share knowledge, and revisit history and experience, from one generation to the other.
Renowned Storytellers, Tsholofelo Shounyane and Nonki, facilitator Baeletsi Tsatsi, who holds the JJ Renaux Emerging Storyteller Grant Award, are among the storytellers who will take the stage and share their stories with the young audience.
Soweto born actor, writer, playwright Sizwe Khumalo is set to present “Why the Tortoise has a Cracked Shell" on Tuesday, September 22.
His work focuses mainly on children and exploring play as part of cognitive development. He has led extensive workshops on storytelling for schools, pre-schools and communities in South Africa, the UK, France and Nigeria.
The sessions, which are hosted predominantly in English with supporting vocabulary in isiZulu, Sesotho, Shona, Setswana and other native languages can improve children’s language fluency and help them grasp new concepts that underpin literacy and literature.
Join the culturally-relevant stories aimed for children live on Facebook, this Tuesday at 2.30pm.
For more information visit Soweto Theatre website.