Dr. Ochieng' K’Olewe's lecture on "Folk and Fairy Tale Traditions from Kenya" was undoubtedly my favorite guest lecture thus far. Dr. K'Olewe gave us examples of traditional Kenyan stories and storytelling techniques. When he turned the lights off, I was a little flustered, as I have never listened to a story be told in the dark before. This darkness, however, allowed me to fully immerse myself in the story, and actually picture what was happening.
My favorite story was the tale of the man and the lizard. The lizard stole the man's salt and the village elders decided it should be split in two. Then the man claims the lizard for himself, and the lizard is "split" in half. The tale gave a fun explanation for the reason the tails sometimes fall off of lizards.
I greatly enjoyed Dr. K'Olewe's song portion of the lecture. Although I may not have understood a lick of Kiswahili, I got into the song, enjoying myself.
What I found particularly fascinating about Dr. K'Olewe's lecture was the importance of riddles in Kenya. I've never given much thought to riddles myself, other then that they can be somewhat frustrating, but the knowledge that they have such an integral part of everyday life is amazing to me.
Dr. K'Olewe's lecture allowed me a little bit of insight into Kenyan culture, one that I can't help but notice is much different from mine. To be quite honest, stories have never been that big a part of my life. I never really considered the fact that they would be important to others, especially other cultures.
As I said before, this lecture was definitely my favorite. I didn't feel as if I was learning, but walking away from it, I realized that what he had taught us stuck with me. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to attend this lecture.
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