Hadithi ya Africa, an organization born in travel through east Africa. Co-founder, Thandwefika Tshabalala, tells us how a journey of storytelling through east Africa resulted in finally bringing alive a place for anyone with a story to tell, or anyone looking for a story to come in and share without restrictions. The organization aims to bring people together through the tradition of relaying experiences about anything one finds worth sharing, through this they believe that they can build and archive stories around Africa, which can be easily tapped into with just a click of a button. While they are a platform for sharing, they also offer workshops and seminars on storytelling for just about anyone with a story.
Hadithi ya Africa saw a gap within the storytelling industry when they realized that there wasn’t enough being done in archiving and growing the scene and that became their motive, to grow, to archive and to share stories across the African continent.
The Organisation has done a number of projects prior to their current one, among those was the Midnight Train where they partnered with architects and several organizations on a voyage to rebuild homes that were lost during Cyclone Idai in Mozambique. They now bring us a specialty that requires architects of a different kind, a story telling contest through which they hope to see many stories written and told, and the culture of African storytelling rebuilt.
The Ultimate Storytelling Contest is an open call for submissions, granting African Storytellers from across the continent to share their stories with not only the judges of the contest, but to integrate social media by posting a 3 minute video on their Facebook and Twitter timeliness with the hash tags, #UltimateStoryteller, #HSC and #HadithiyaAfrica. It is a one of a kind contest indeed and refreshing to see the storytelling community jump onto the train of virtual offerings. This contest will grant all contestants the opportunity to have their stories sharpened also giving the storytellers skills to further shape their upcoming stories.
Representative of Hadithi Ya Africa, Thandwefika, feels that this is more than just a contest but a vital step at bringing back the art of storytelling for the current generation.
“Tell the story that you have lived and let us shape it into perfection, because everyone’s story matters” he said.
They have partnered with Current State of Poetry (CSP), an organization that has taken the poetry industry by storm, through cross province and continental poetry slams and poetry workshops; CSP brings to the table their specialty in training writers and shaping stories.
You can find out more about Hadithi ya Africa and the contest here: hadithia.africa
