ORAL Literature for Development

31/08/2026

Week 8: OL4D Book Launch Series – Story 8: The Despised Brother.

The Despised Brother is one of the stories featured in African Storytelling and Images in Teaching: Youth and Crisis Management through Folktales and Visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia.

Dereje Diro, a 16-year-old storyteller from Arsi, Ethiopia, narrated the story in Afaan Oromo, and Milkessa Edae-Tufa ( Milkii Seenaa) documented it. It is a fascinating tale of jealousy, exclusion, resilience, cleverness, and the surprising ways an underdog can turn misfortune into opportunity.

The Teaser

Once, a family lived together in harmony.
Or so it seemed.
Among them was one brother whom everyone despised.
No matter what he did, they excluded him, mocked him, and treated him as if he didn’t belong.
Eventually, his family drove him away.
They gave him only a small share of the family property and forced him to leave.
For most people, that would have marked the end of the story.
But not for this brother.
Strangely, his life began to improve once he left.
That made his relatives furious.
How could the brother they despised be doing better than they were?
Consumed by jealousy, they decided to destroy all he had.
First, they slaughtered his livestock.
Then they set fire to his house.
Later, they even tried to kill him.
Each time, they expected him to be finished.
Each time, he returned with greater wealth than before.
A hide somehow became cattle.
Ashes somehow turned into grain.
A deadly cliff somehow led to a magnificent horse.
The more they tried to ruin him, the more successful he grew.
The more successful he became, the more reckless his enemies grew.
Soon, jealousy blinded them so completely that they began copying everything he did.
Without understanding how.
Without understanding why.
That was when disaster struck.

What follows is one of the most entertaining trickster tales in the Oromo oral tradition, full of humour, clever deception, dramatic reversals, and an unforgettable lesson about envy.

Will the despised brother finally find peace?
Will his tormentors ever learn their lesson?
Can jealousy become so powerful that it destroys those who harbour it?

At its heart, The Despised Brother is a story about exclusion, resilience, wisdom, and the dangers of letting envy guide our actions.

As the young narrator concludes:
“Always do good during your lifetime.”

👉 Read the full story here:
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112235010-013/html

Side Reflection

One of the most striking aspects of this story is that the hero is not the strongest. He is not the richest person. He is not protected by powerful relatives. Instead, he survives through cleverness, resilience, and perseverance.

The Oromo storyteller presents a powerful contrast between two forces:
• Jealousy destroys.
• Wisdom creates opportunities.

While the siblings constantly squander wealth, the despised brother repeatedly turns ruins into resources. Hides become cattle. Ashes become grain. Hardship becomes opportunity.

The story reminds us that adversity can either break a person or teach them to survive.

Did You Know?

The story reflects an important Oromo ethical principle, Safuu.
Safuu is the moral and ethical code that governs harmonious relationships among people, nature, and God. The siblings repeatedly violate this principle through jealousy, greed, and exclusion, yet the story ultimately restores balance and justice.

Coming Next Week...

Stay tuned for Week 9 of our OL4D Book Launch Series as we continue exploring the rich oral traditions, cultural wisdom, and ecological insights preserved in African Storytelling and Images in Teaching. Please use the link we shared on our OL4D page to register for the Book Launch scheduled for 25 September 2026.

29/08/2026

Here is the registration link:

https://event.ugent.be/registration/OL4DBOOKLAUNCH

If it is not clickable, please copy and paste it into your browser.

We look forward to seeing you online on this festive occasion.

Kind regards,

The OL4D Team

28/08/2026

OL4D BOOK LAUNCH

We will celebrate the publication of our new book in which the OL4D TEAM offers folktales and visuals for teaching: Inge Brinkman, James Wachira, Teshome Mossissa, Peter Wasamba (eds), African storytelling and images in teaching:
youth and crisis management through folktales and visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia (Brill-De Gruyter 2026). 124pp.

The book launch will have a nice programme: with a key-note address by Prof. Evan Mwangi (Northwestern University, US), a live performance from Kwale Arts Troupe (Kenya), a Q & A with the editors, and a conversation with one of the illustrators (Ethiopia). Looking forward to meeting you online for this festive occasion.

Please register in advance through:

https://event.ugent.be/registration/OL4DBOOKLAUNCH

Kind regards from the OL4D-Team

The book launch will have a nice programme: with a key-note address by Prof. Evan Mwangi (Northwestern University, US), a live performance from Kwale Arts Troupe (Kenya), a Q & A with the editors, and a conversation with one of the illustrators (Ethiopia). Looking forward to meeting you online for t...

23/08/2026

Week 7: OL4D Book Launch Series – Story 7: The Beautiful Girl Wacici

The Beautiful Girl Wacici is one of the stories featured in African Storytelling and Images in Teaching: Youth and Crisis Management through Folktales and Visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia.
Eunice Wangeci, a Gikuyu storyteller born in 1932, narrated the story, and Suma Inge Brinkman documented it. It is a powerful narrative exploring beauty, jealousy, social exclusion, resilience, and survival. Ann-Sofie Guldentops, an undergraduate student in the Journalism programme at Howest, Courtrai, created the chapter’s illustrations. Her artwork brings Wacici’s story to life.

The Teaser

Long ago, a group of young girls set out together for a special purpose.
They were going to have their beauty gaps made.
In Gikuyu society, a gap between the front upper teeth was once admired as a mark of beauty. People would proudly show it when they smiled.
Among all the girls were two sisters.
Wamweru.
And Wacici.
As they returned home, people kept asking the girls to laugh so they could admire their beautiful gaps.
Again and again, the verdict was the same.
“Wamweru and Wacici have the most beautiful smiles.”
At first, this seemed like a compliment.
But not everyone was happy.
Jealousy began to grow.
A dangerous jealousy.
Soon, the other girls made a secret plan.
A plan to punish Wacici for being admired.
One day, while her sister was away, they invited Wacici to play a game.
A harmless game, or so it seemed.
The girls took turns jumping over deep holes in the ground.
Then Wacici fell.
And instead of helping her out, they buried her alive.
Deep in an abandoned aardvark hole.
Alone.
Hungry.
Forgotten.
The girls returned home and swore never to tell anyone what they had done.
But they kept returning to the hole.
Not to rescue Wacici.
Not to comfort her.
But to sing cruel songs that remind her she will never laugh again.
Yet Wacici refused to disappear.
She answered them from the darkness.
And one day, a familiar voice heard her singing back.
A voice that would change everything.

Will Wacici escape?
Will the truth finally be revealed?
And what does this unforgettable story teach us about beauty, jealousy, bullying, social exclusion, and the pressure to live up to society’s ideals?

More than a folktale, The Beautiful Girl Wacici invites us to reflect on challenges that many young people still face today: peer pressure, body image, envy, and the search for self-worth, which can lead some to pursue body and facial modifications beyond what they were born with.


Did You Know?
1. The oldest known published version of the story of Wacici and her sister Wamwerũ dates back to 1910, published by Routledge. In that version, the central character already bears the name Wacici, and the plot closely resembles the one Eunice Wangeci narrated in 1992.

2. The story has demonstrated extraordinary resilience across generations. According to Inge Brinkman, the Wacici narratives remain part of the cultural repertoire of many Gikuyu speakers, even where active storytelling has become less common.

3. To date, at least ten versions of the story are known, including four versions collected through fieldwork, demonstrating how oral narratives evolve while preserving their core themes of beauty, jealousy, exclusion, survival, and justice.

4. Wacici is therefore more than just a folktale character. She is one of the most enduring female figures in Gikuyu oral literature, continuing to inspire discussion of beauty ideals, social exclusion, resilience, and the challenges young people face in society.

📖 As you read The Beautiful Girl Wacici, it is worth remembering that you are not reading just one story. They are engaging with a narrative tradition that has been told, retold, and reimagined for well over a hundred years.

👉 Read the full story here:
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112235010-012/html

20/08/2026

Fun Fact

The girl on the cover of African Storytelling and Images in Teaching
Youth and Crisis Management through Folktales and Visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia is called Wacici.

Among the Gikuyu, a gap in the upper front teeth was traditionally admired as a sign of beauty.

And that is your clue for what comes next...

17/08/2026

14/08/2026

Week 6: OL4D Book Launch Series – Story 6: Two Abandoned Girls and an Ogre

Two Abandoned Girls and an Ogre is another story featured in African Storytelling and Images in Teaching: Youth and Crisis Management through Folktales and Visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia.

The story was narrated in Afaan Oromo by Kedija Abba Fita from Omo Nadda, Ethiopia, and documented by Megersa Regassa Tolasa. It is a moving tale about abandonment, hunger, survival, sisterhood, and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. The photographs accompanying the chapter were taken by Megersa Regassa Tolasa during the storytelling session and capture the narrator's expressive performance style.

The Teaser

A father has two daughters.
After their mother dies, he remarries.
But the new wife hates the girls.
She refuses to feed them.
She wants them gone.
To protect them, their father hides them away. Yet when the pressure becomes too much, he makes a heartbreaking decision.
One night, he takes the girls far into the wilderness.
They travel for hours.
When darkness falls, they sleep beneath a tree.
When the girls wake up the next morning, their father is gone.
They are alone.
Hungry.
Abandoned.
And surrounded by a land they do not know.
As they search for a way to survive, they discover a house in the distance.
But it is no ordinary house.
It belongs to a bulguu.
An ogre.
A creature feared throughout Oromo storytelling traditions.
Desperate for food, the girls begin secretly taking supplies from the ogre's home while he is away herding cattle.
For a time, their plan works.
Then disaster strikes.
One of the sisters is caught.
Captured.
Trapped in a bag.
And marked as the ogre's next meal.
Now the girls face a terrifying challenge.

Can they outwit a monster who plans to eat them?
Can they escape the wilderness that was supposed to become their grave?
And what happens when the very father who abandoned them unexpectedly returns years later, not as a protector, but as a hungry beggar?

This Oromo folktale is a story of courage, female solidarity, survival, and forgiveness. It invites us to reflect on family relationships, neglect, poverty, resilience, and the astonishing ability of human beings to rebuild their lives after betrayal.

👉 Read the full story here:
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112235010-011/html

07/08/2026

Week 5: OL4D Book Launch Series – Story 5: A Girl Deceiving Ogres

A Girl Deceiving Ogres is one of the stories featured in African Storytelling and Images in Teaching: Youth and Crisis Management through Folktales and Visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia.

The story was narrated by Edith Wambui (1936–2022) from Nyeri County, Kenya, and transcription and translation was done by James Wachira and checked by Carolyne Wambui Mugi.

It is a remarkable Gikuyu narrative about courage, intelligence, healing, disability, and crisis management. The visual illustrations accompanying the story were developed by Newton Kipruto Kipchirchir, a Kenyan artist and graphic designer who helped bring the ogres and the heroine's journey to life.

The Teaser

A young girl's mother is dying.
A wound on her leg refuses to heal. Every remedy has failed. Every hope is fading.
Then a diviner reveals something.
There is only one cure.
A few leaves from a special mũrurĩ tree.
But there is a problem.
The tree grows deep inside the territory of the ogres.
Everyone knows what happens to people who enter the ogres' land.
They never return.
Yet the girl faces a terrible choice:
Stay home and watch her mother die.
Or risk her own life to save her.
Without hesitation, she begins the journey.
She walks for an entire day before reaching the ogres' homestead.
At first, things seem strangely welcoming.
The ogres feed her.
They give her meat.
They treat her well.
Day after day.
But there is something they are not telling her.
Then, an unlikely ally appears.
A disabled ogre quietly reveals a frightening secret:
The ogres are not caring for her.
They are fattening her.
Preparing her for a feast.
Suddenly, the girl realizes that she is running out of time.
Surrounded by monsters, far from home, and marked as the next meal, she must rely on nothing but her wit.
A song.
A rope.
A clever performance.
And a disguise so unexpected that even a crowd of hungry ogres cannot recognize her.

But even if she escapes, will she return home in time?
Can the medicinal leaves still save her mother?
And how does a story about ogres become a lesson in resilience, disability, courage, creativity, and crisis management?

This captivating Gikuyu narrative reminds us that strength is not always found in physical power. Sometimes, survival depends on intelligence, determination, and the courage to act when everything seems impossible.

👉 Read the full story here:
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112235010-010/html

03/08/2026

Book Discount & Contributor Copies Update!

Just a heads-up that the discount on "African Storytelling and Images in Teaching: Youth and Crisis Management Through Folktales and Visuals from Kenya and Ethiopia" is still live through the De Gruyter Brill Summer Sale.

As one of the contributors to this volume, I'm also excited to share that some of our UoN OL4D contributors have already received their physical copies!

If you’d like to pick up a copy for yourself, you can find the details below:

03/08/2026

In June 2026, The OL4D project team at Jimma University led by Dr Teshome Egere convened a stakehokders’ meeting to discuss sustainability with representatives from partner organisations and institutions. Storytelling is thereby used as a major tool to provoke discussions on societal debates (e.g. on social exclusion, gender, poverty, disease and ecology) and is vital in empowering youth. Performances of narratives at the same time serve to create links between youth, schools, communities, and institutions.

Project Activities Below is an overview of our project activities. We illustrate with photos where we can. JUNE 2026, STAKEHOLDERS’ MEETING AT JIMMA UNIVERSITY The OL4D project team at Jimma University convened a stakehokders’ meeting to discuss sustainability with representatives from partner o...