The art of storytelling..

 

Griot, in West Africa, is a poet or story teller who is in charge of keeping the oral history of the village. When a griot dies, its like a library burnt down, they say.

I have finished reading Born A Crime by Trevor Noah and was mesmerised by the art of storytelling in it.

 

Trevor Noah is a mixed race South African comedian. In apartheid South Africa, being born to a white father and a black woman meant a crime was committed. Noah tells stories of his life, funny, sad, and very humanistic. Most of these stories, talk about the individual, but they represent a digest of history of a country and its communities.

 

The book cover is what looks like a poster of a smiling Trevor Noah with a black woman walking in front of this giant poster, inside the book you are laughing with this man as you relive his adventures, and as his mother walks through those stories.

First story in the book was about a 9 year old boy, his baby brother and mum jumping out of a moving minibus, sounds dangerous and exciting, but there is more to it. for us the readers from around the world it is hard to understand the history of a society, but you can understand a story, and the context within it. Trevor's mum is a Xhosa, a tribe in South Africa, he is mixed race, meaning the mother had a relation with a white man, the bus driver was Zulu, a rival tribe. Now, there is the history of the apartheid, the stereotyping of women in general and the Xhosa women, the patriarchal society of the country, the poverty, and much more, all cramped in one simple and funny adventure of a 9 years old boy. How you tell such a story, how you convey the message, is a real art.

 

As each story moved on, I could easily predict where it was heading, see the ending from a mile away, still would sit in my corner, captive to the storyteller as he goes on telling his story. The stories so different but I can easily relate to, weird and wonderful, alien and human, not about me, but it could be me, because he (the story teller) made me part of the story. I was listening to Trevor’s stories, painting the scenes in my mind, putting myself inside the story, watching and listening to the storyteller and to all the surroundings, the characters, the drama, and most importantly; the history.

 

I finished the book and I was more informed about domestic violence, why poverty breeds poverty, why South Africa is struggling, and many more things. I learnt a lot from those stories, a lot about Trevor Noah and a lot about South Africa, also a lot about myself and humanity. Strangely, the main thing I learnt from this book is how to be a good storyteller, so your story is known, your suffering, history and what is holding your future come out to everyone while they are paying attention.

Ahmad Baker