Smash hit

It was a magical, unforgettable three months, full of moments I will never forget. Sitting under a full yellow moon round a fire on the sands of the dry Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana, surrounded by Bushmen in loincloths. Being hugged by lepers, who had lost their legs, fingers and their confidence, and had regained so much pride at being asked to tell a story. Lying under a star-filled sky with a 74-year-old woman who invited me to sleep alongside her, by a fire. Being invited into shacks by poverty-stricken Zimbabwean families whose possessions consisted of a few torn blankets and utensils, and always being offered a seat and a cup of water. And being told by a very thin, poor teenage girl, Maureen Chirembwe, a born storyteller sitting on a pavement in a shanty town, that her dream was to learn to write.

It was Maureen, really, who spurred me on to find a relevant African charity to which to give the proceeds of the book. Having taken the stories from villages, it didn’t feel right to profit myself. And having grown up in Zimbabwe, where schooling for girls is not a priority for poor families, it seemed logical to try to benefit girls, who would otherwise have no chance of being educated. All profits from the book are going to the charity Camfed, which raises funds in the UK to pay for the schooling of girls in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Ghana. Last June I visited a rural school in Zimbabwe and met 56 girls whose entire education will be funded by the charity. I also met two young women who are studying social sciences at university, in order to help their own communities. None of them had seen a book of traditional African stories, but remembered hearing them as children. Each begged me for a copy, and every one said that, without Camfed, they would not have been educated.

It’s a strange feeling, seeing the book in print. When I started the journey, the objective was personal: to try to keep alive the stories I loved as a child. Today, Stories Gogo [Grandmother] Told Me has taken on other meanings. When all we see on our televisions and newspapers are negative stories about Africa – oppression in Zimbabwe, stolen elections in Kenya, violence in South Africa, famine in Darfur – the book, I hope, will give a glimpse of the richness of cultures and people there: the fun, the imagination, the colour and the ancient traditions. It will, I hope, educate children around the world about the strong link between man and animals. I now know there are hundreds of girls across Africa who will benefit from education if the book sells. A year of boarding school, with uniforms, stationery and shoes, costs £100 per girl. As one girl put it to me: “We are going to ask our headmaster to buy ten. Then my sister can come to school too.”

Iman, in the foreword to the book, describes African story-telling as “mothering, creative nurturing”. With any luck, its nurturing will be more than just moral. It will be practical, too.

Stories Gogo Told Me, published by Penguin South Africa, can be bought through www.exclusivebooks.com (£8, plus postage, with a delivery time of two weeks). It will be published in the UK in July. For information on Camfed, go to www.camfed.org

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