Bringing Villagers’ Voices to Life: Stories from Sierra Leone (in-person)

Storytellers Nancy Edwards and Dauda Mansaray weave together their experiences of rural life in Sierra Leone, West Africa, giving voice to villagers. They engage audiences through narrative, spoken word poetry, and song; sharing complementary yet contrasting perspectives on village life from Sierra Leone’s post-independence and civil war periods. Compelling and powerful stories reveal the ancestral roots of knowledge and oral traditions; the strengths of family, community, and social connections; the hardships of poverty and child labour; and the trauma and injustice of civil war. Vivid and heartfelt stories are sprinkled with hopefulness and humour. Their insider and outsider cultural perspectives intersect as they share the bonds of our common humanity, and reconcile their cultural dislocation from Sierra Leone, a country they both love.