The latest episode of CNN’s Inside Africa meets Bola Edwards, whose production Story Theatre with Grandma Wura, blends music, dance, fantasy, and African oral tradition into a large-scale family theatre experience.
Edwards explains the story behind her character ‘Grandma Wura’, “Back in the days, our forefathers used storytelling to shape communities the way they wanted the community to grow, to actually dish information to the older ones and the younger ones. That was what our forefathers did under the moonlight. So it is going back to the drawing table and bringing back that old oral tradition of storytelling.”
For Edwards, ‘Grandma Wura’ is a bridge, carrying an older storytelling tradition into a world designed to reach children today, “She is a middle point between the old and the new. So she represents the old generation and then you see the way she’s costumed with colours and their innovated way of presenting her to children and to people generally in a way that actually fascinates and amuses them. So she’s a middle point between the old and the new.”
The idea of shaping how young Africans see themselves is central to what Story Theatre is trying to support. She explains how theatre helps with this, “The reason why what we do using theater, storytelling, entertainment, to educate children about their history and their culture, the reason it’s important to us is that it has to do with the senses, the sense of the eyes of sight and of hearing and feeling emotion as well. When you tell them a story that they can see, they can feel, they can hear. It leaves a lasting memory for them. It’s something they never forget.”
Edwards tells CNN that she sees the chance to make African stories feel global in scale, without losing their roots, “What makes this moment exciting for African storytelling? It just simply shows to the world that we are not waiting we are changing the narrative in a big way through the theater, through media, because this is also going to be everywhere on social media is going to just spread like wildfire.”
These interviews were featured on the latest episode of Inside Africa on CNN International.
