Story time at Freedom Park festival
MORE than 15 professional storytellers performed at the seventh annual Ungasali International Storytelling Festival at Freedom Park on Saturday.
The event formed part of Freedom Park’s 20-year anniversary activities, said spokesperson Naomi Madima.
It was hosted in partnership with the City of Tshwane, the Department of Basic Education, Unisa and the Pan South African Language Board.
Representatives of schools, artists and institutions attended the annual event.
Madima said the main event was preceded by community outreach activities such as mini-festivals, workshops, seminars, auditions, visits to schools and libraries.
Storytellers from South Africa and other countries gathered at the amphitheatre and told stories about history, culture and spirituality.
The festival was themed “Stories Connect, Stories Build: Ungasali”.
“Storytelling enables interaction and dialogue among the South African public in their endeavour to realise the country’s goals of reconciliation, social cohesion, nation building, spirituality and emancipating the African voice,” Madima said.
“Freedom Park represents another part of reconciliation at a level of spirituality and politically. So my stories are exactly about that: driving humanity and justice and the rise of the ordinary man in the community,” Bongani Godide said.
Gomolemo Moagi told children from Jopie Fourie Primary School a story about a dragon that struggled to make friends. She said the lesson of the story was to realise our uniqueness and embrace other people’s differences. |