By: Staff Writer
November 8, 2022
On the island of Jamaica, a rich tradition of storytelling holds firm with the now annual Ananse Storytelling Festival, going into its 24th year and has grown the Jamaican literary cache by leaps and bounds.
A national day of storytelling is needed to capture the essence of the Ananse Storytelling Festival in Jamaica says Dr Amina Blackwood-Meeks, the festival’s coordinator, and is why this year’s festival holds special importance.
Dr Blackwood-Meeks, speaking at the media launch of the festival, said that the festival, despite having several name changes, it’s still going strong. Adding why they chose the month of November to have the festival, she said: “November allows us to celebrate many things. In Jamaica, November is observed as youth month, community month, and parent month. November 20, is the date on which universal adult suffrage was first promulgated in Jamaica and November 20 is our universal Children’s Day. And so when we came to ask the Governor General, to officially proclaim one of the day’s national storytelling day, there was no doubt in our minds, that it would be November 20 so we could bring everything together and do something positive and practical to demonstrate our commitment to the rights of our children to heritage and culture.”
In 2014 the then Governor General of Jamaica proclaimed November 20 as the national storytelling day on the request of Dr Blackwood-Meeks and the festival receives a tremendous boost as a result. The festival has key partners in the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Library Service as well as other notable agencies in Jamaica.
The festival will run from November 13 to November 20 in various locations around the island as its tradition with its home base in the St Ann parish.
Dr Blackwood-Meeks also said: “We perform in 15 minute segments. So we have 15 minutes of a game and a story. Then we take a break so they can walk around and come back… Then listen to some music and come back for another 15 minutes of two games or so and maybe a song. And it’s a wonderful experience. So we want everybody in St Ann to come out to Island Village at four o’clock on November 20.”
Kishma Simpson, senior director at the Jamaica Library Service also said: “…We truly look forward to a very rare, very rich cultural experience… and invite you to visit the festival village at the Kingston and St. Andrew parish library for the entire week. Visit the exhibition booth which will share a lot about our storytelling foundation and its history and storytelling in general. You may also visit our other lab locations for the week to participate in the festival and to celebrate National storytelling day with libraries on November 20.”
The festival is also not predominantly Afro-Caribbean centric and invites storytellers from around the world to participate. This year will also feature a segment dedicated to the Taino people, the original inhabitants of these Caribbean islands.
On the opening day under the theme ‘Our hearts salute Jamaica,” there will be a Taino heritage storytelling performance from someone of Taino heritage who lives I Jamaica. “So when we open the history books, and said that every Taino (Christopher) Columbus killed them off, then we are able to say not true. I survived and see me here,” Dr Blackwood-Meeks said.
There will also be a participant from Mexico by way of Panama who will share their experiences with the Ananse folklore Central America received from Jamaica.
This will be another fun-filled week in November for the Ananse Storytelling Festival.