| This collection of original and traditional stories really is by the people, for the people. Imagine trekking across field after field under an intense African sun following a group of total strangers and hoping against hope that your old fashioned recording machine will work and that the batteries are not dead. Imagine then the joy when it all happens even though you do not understand a word of what is being said
Once Upon a Time in Ghana gives the reader an insight into each unique storyteller. Two and a half hours awe-inspiring hours spent with 84 year old Mr Nutsugah where one story flowed seamlessly into another. A day recording the fishermen in Anyako, as far from being in a purpose built studio as can be imagined as goats jumped up to eat bananas on the table, wide-eyed children wandered in and out, cocks crowed, men sewed and hammered just a few feet away.
In Have, a wonderful and unexpected reception was given as the storytellers moved towards us singing a welcome. Equally unexpected was the gift of bananas, coconuts and avocado pears when we finished
All the money made from the book goes to the storytellers as we identify projects, which will help raise their standard of living. This book is therefore the expression of so much, of long tradition, of beliefs, of faith in the past and of hope for the future.
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