British Library Celebrates West African Storytelling

This new video from AFP News Agency takes viewers inside the British Library’s new exhibit on storytelling in West Africa. The exhibition, West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song, traces 1,000 years of the region’s cultural history. Curators drew on more than 200 artworks, books, manuscripts and sound recordings to demonstrate how the region’s 17 nations have “harnessed the power of words to build societies, drive political movements, sustain religious belief and fight injustice,” as described by the British Library on its event page. As this video and exhibition reveal, literary diplomacy can be a powerful platform to connect global publics, highlighting both the “long intellectual trajectory” of West Africa, as well as showcasing how West Africans have employed “the English language and English writing traditions to make them their own.” 

British Library Celebrates West African Storytelling

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