The doors to the first Bokobokids Village experience in Spain opened at 10.00 am at Espacio Conciencia Afro on July 8.
One by one, children of all ages arrived accompanied by their parents and received a Bokobokids ribbon which they tied on their wrists. They represented a diverse mix of cultures, racial backgrounds and gender too.
Curious and full of energy, they passed the entrance and settled into the main room which was tastefully furnished with colourful paintings and bold patterned soft fabrics that typically adorn an African home.
The children stood in line patiently waiting their turn to receive African indigenous art face painting. Some of the parents joined in too and suddenly the room was transformed into an African village complete with warriors, princes and princesses of different ancient African tribes.
There was a buzz of excitement in the air when it was announced that a storytelling session was about to begin. The children sat quietly on colourful cushions under the stage, anticipating the storytelling performance.
Suddenly, Susana Bokobo, the founder of Bokobokids, appeared on stage having been transformed into a cheerful zebra in a striped black and white outfit from head to toe. She immediately caught the children’s attention by setting the background to an enchanting soundtrack that echoed sounds of the African savanna.
As soon as she began the storytelling performance, the audience was captivated by the progression of her voice which mimicked different accents and tones of the characters in the enchanting tale of Madiba and the Baobab Tree, an original story written by our Bokobokids storytellers.
This original legend is exclusively found on the Bokobokids website and is free for download to all the subscribers. It has also been translated into several languages and narrated by our Bokobokids storytellers in the traditional oral storytelling style of the ancient African wisdom keepers.
Susana’s remarkable performance brought the story of Madiba alive by intermittently interacting with the children and turning them into characters inside the story. The children’s smiling faces provided Susana the extra inspiration needed to build into the story new twists that kept the children in joyful anticipation of what would happen next.
The children were mesmerised and time seemed to stand still. Even two year old Lea, who was the youngest member of the audience remained still and focused until the end of the story when she turned to her father asking to see a picture of a real baobab tree. He quickly downloaded an image of an enormous baobab tree and shared a tender moment with his little girl showing her each part of the tree as it was described in the story.
Later, Lea’s father revealed that he once had a most extraordinary experience in the bush of Africa in Kenya’s Maasai Mara national park. He shared that during this journey, he had spent three days with no contact with other human beings but surrounded by the stars that flood the night sky and basking under acacia trees during the daylight hours.
This inspired more parents to share their stories of Africa, and they all expressed a genuine love and appreciation of African oral storytelling.
Meanwhile, the children were invited to sit around an art and craft table for a colouring contest. They were presented with the exclusive Bokobokids colouring pages inspired by the Tinga Tinga art design from Tanzania.
The final products of the children’s art work were a breathtaking tapestry of original art, each one detailed and carefully coloured to show originality and self expression. We simply could not choose just one winner. We quickly made the decision to announce all the children as winners and presented each child with a copy of The Twelve Days of Christmas Safari, a story written by Wakanyi Hoffman, who is the Bokobokids Wisdom Keeper and an accomplished children’s book author. Her latest story, ‘Sala, Mountain Warrior’ published by Otter Barry Books was recently released and is available in all major bookstores worldwide.
The event would not have been complete without a tasting of baobab juice, which was homemade in Susana’s kitchen and served for free to everyone. The unusual taste of this juice was made with genuine baobab powder and mixed with fresh pineapple juice. Many parents expressed interest in learning how to make it and we are happy to present our newsletter subscribers with an exclusive Bokobokids baobab juice recipe.
The grand finale of the event was a dance workshop lee by Susana and Reina Flor, a former Olympian and our Bokobokids advocate and who also oversees our physical health pillar.
As the doors closed upon saying goodbye to the last family, we were filled with a sense of awe and accomplishment.
