Sankofa Series: Grace Omaboe’s 'By the Fireside' and its impact

If you ever experienced the rhythmic beats of drumming and the joyous dances, the laughter of children engaged in old local games, all illuminated by the flickering flames of a firewood blaze, with Maame Dokono occupying her revered 'storytelling seat' back in the 90s, then you'd recognize the unmistakable sign that it was time for the iconic 'By the Fireside' series.

Capable of ‘glueing’ kids and even adults to their television on Saturday evenings in every Ghanaian home, ‘By the Fireside’ was momentous.

Folklore in its purest form was experienced, particularly by kids who rarely had the opportunity of hearing these stories from their parents after evening meals in a typical Ghanaian home.

Stories that were capable of influencing one’s dreams at night or sometimes caused these young ones to immediately eschew certain bad habits due to lessons from the storyline.

The Grace Omaboe effect

Grace Omaboe, the host cum storyteller, won the hearts of kids anytime she gracefully assumed her stool, ready to pour out tales from the likes of Kwaku Ananse and so on.

Her stories resonated deep into the minds of these kids such that they felt as though they were real-life situations, that they were a part of.

Just like the imaginary existence of a ‘Wakanda’ kingdom, Grace Omaboe could create the existence of an ‘Ananse Kingdom’ along with its interesting characters.

The passion with which she narrated the stories and the emotions they stirred among the kids could be likened to a 4D virtual cinema experience, with the characters outplaying themselves live.

Some kids who acted out some scenes while the stories were told, had the advantage of discovering their acting talent at a young age.

How the ‘By the Fireside’ folklore stirred critical thinking, sharp brains

The habit of reading novels, cracking through difficult life puzzles, discipline, and so on were effortlessly inculcated in kids from that age.

Unlike children from the social media era, some customs and cultures were instilled in kids through these tales.

For instance, one of the unforgettable stories from Maame Dokono’s series was when a man turned into a monkey after being hit with a spatula directly from a pot of ‘banku’.

This particular tale sought to educate society on the abominable practice of hitting people with food, or any item that has got food on it.

How ‘By the Fireside’ outweighed telenovelas in the 90s

Before the telecast of ‘By the Fireside’, some kids joined their parents to watch telenovelas every evening.

Maame Dokono, in a recent interview with TV3, stated that the concept of storytelling was to divert kids’ attention from these telenovelas, which didn’t have any moral lessons attached to them.

“When I noticed that they were watching telenovelas, I don’t see what they learn from it. They learn all sorts of bad behaviours from it. We do this for the children to learn a lot of lessons. You see these games that we play, they were played a long time ago and are very interesting and educative,” she told Berla Mundi.

Unlike the subtle lessons and education today’s cartoon era serves, the concept of tougher lessons and stiffer punishments from ‘By the Fireside’ was enough to ‘force reset’ the minds of kids into being morally upright.

It is safe to say ‘By the Fireside’, beyond serving as a source of entertainment, complemented parenting in most African homes in the 90s era.

EB/BB