Introduction to African Stories by Moonlight.

The most memorable evenings I had as a child were those in which, together with other children, I listened to adults tell us stories which were often accompanied with rhythmic and delightful songs. When I started raising my own family in the city, my children looked forward to those nights when we would regale them with those stories and songs. I noticed then that many urban children were not exposed to these stories, as they were no longer in the environment in which they were told.

It was after I did some studies on Indigenous African Education as a Visiting Scholar in the African Studies Center at UCLA, that I realized the molding influence of these stories on our character. Storytelling, of course, was a basic ingredient for traditional African education. I have therefore decided to share some of these stories with those children of African descent who are now away from the environment where they are told. Children and adults of other cultures will enjoy these stories, and learn from the wisdom embedded in them. The enthusiastic reception given to them by the multicultural classes to which I read them in the Long Beach Unified School District in California, further encouraged me to seek to publish them.

I have written ten short stories in a language suitable for school readers, and a wider audience. If these stories help to revive storytelling in homes and communities, one objective for writing this book shall have been achieved. For the benefit of teachers who want to use the book to teach English, social studies, or multicultural studies, and for the benefit of families who would like to use the book for entertainment and learning, comprehension questions and answers have been prepared on each of the stories. These are available from [...]