For hundreds of years, Africans have preserved their history through storytelling. But some Africans worry that oral traditions will be lost to the Internet connections and social media.
This has led a Nigerian woman named Elizabeth Kperrun to create a mobile phone application as a way to preserve African folk stories. She calls her mobile app AfroTalez, which tells children’s stories that teach moral lessons.
“We can’t teach kids something by telling them, ‘Don’t do this’. I think kids need context to understand. In a story somebody stole something and then something bad happened to them. Alternatively, somebody else did something good and they ended up happy or rich.”
“Hello children. My name is Liz and I’d like to tell you a story about tortoises, elephants, and ...” The voice of “Aunt Liz” narrates the story, while a full-screen animation appears. An arrow signals when it’s time to move on. There are also quizzes on object recognition and counting throughout.
Kperrun asks her older relatives to help her collect stories for the application. The stories come from an ethnic group living in southeast Nigeria and northwest Cameroon. “I want to keep it centered on folk stories, not the ones that Walt Disney has made really popular... It’s fair and respectful to keep certain cultures alive because folk stories are part of the tapestry that keeps cultures together.” Kperrun once said.
Kperrun writes and reads the stories. Her business partner and husband Idamiebi Ilamina-Eremie does the animation (动画).
AfroTalez is available for Android users and can be downloaded for free. So far, AfroTalez has more than 50,000 users. Funding for the app has been a major challenge. Kperrun hopes to use a crowdfunding campaign to help fund the next version of AfroTalez to be released soon.
Kperrun believes technology doesn’t have to destroy or replace traditions. Her goal is to combine them to keep African culture alive. She says “Africa is our home, but we are so eager to become Western that we are forgetting things that are really important and should be passed on of who we are, and I don’t think that’s right.”
【小题1】What caused Elizabeth Kperrun to create the mobile app AfroTalez?| A．Desiring to make money through the Internet. |
| B．Planning to keep technology replacing traditions. |
| C．Dreaming of launching a crowdfunding campaign. |
| D．Worrying about the disappearance of African oral traditions. |
| A．are narrated by Kperrun’s husband |
| B．are familiar to today’s African children |
| C．are as popular as those of Walt Disney’s |
| D．are means to teach children moral lessons |
| A．will destroy African traditions |
| B．is free for Android users |
| C．has released two versions |
| D．faces no financial problems |
| A．Mobile App seeks to preserve African folktales |
| B．African people pass on traditions by storytelling |
| C．It is unwise for a nation to learn from western countries blindly |
| D．Social media lead to the disappearance of African Oral traditions |
