‘In Africa part of our story is that we have lost our story. The sacrifice of childhood and with it our creativity and imagination is one of the casualties of an authoritarian system and civil war.
Authorities dictate to people what their stories are. At a time of transition, of personal and communal pain, there is a need for what the Jungian, James Hillman, refers to as “restorying.” Perhaps the African continent is in search of a myth that respects imagination.‘
Excerpt:The Writer’s Voice, A Wookbook for African Writers in Africa
by Dorian Haarhoff
http://dorianhaarhoffwriter.homestead.com
Categories: Opinions & Debates
Africa breathes stories… in Africa everything is a story, everything is a repository of stories. Spiders, the wind, a leaf, a tree, the moon, silence, a glance, a mysterious old man, an owl at midnight, a sign, a white stone on a branch, a single yellow bird of omen, and inexplicable death, an unprompted laughter, an egg by the river – are all pregnated with stories. In Africa things are stories, they store stories, and they yield stories at the right moment of dreaming, when we are open to the secret side of objects and moods. (Ben Okri, Birds Of Heaven)
The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. (Barry Lopez)
A man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. (Jean-Paul Sartre)
Categories: Opinions & Debates
Offerings from the southern continent this year come from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Both in content and form, the selection of stories provide a platform for honest and critical debate on how public TV formats can deal sensitively and intelligently with issues of sexuality, prejudice, uncovering corrupt practice as well as love and eroticism amongst young adults and teenagers.
Scenes from the Brazilian submission Antonia, which can be seen at Input 2008 on 5 May.
Categories: The PROGRAMMES: views, news and previews!
Tagged: antonia, brazil, latin america
