Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 2, 1992 TAG: 9202020171
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
STORYTELLER ENTERTAINS IN TRADITIONAL AFRICAN STYLE
Mama Nahlu came out from behind a partition Saturday wearing a black-and-white chequered hat and an African style smock.She greeted the small audience in the Black Cultural Center at Virginia Tech and introduced herself as Lena from South Africa. Her slow gait and voice, complaining about the cold, suggested an elderly woman.
Mama Nahlu, also known as Barbara Alexander, was part of the third annual Black Awareness Weekend. The activities kicked off the university's Black History Month. Nahlu, 46, spent more than an hour telling stories of love and life in traditional African style.
In character as Lena, she settled in a chair and told the audience about growing up with her family on a farm "owned by a white man who was mean.
"Seems just like yestidy," she said shaking her head.
She told a tale of when she was 8-years-old and sent into the night to search for a lost calf. As she searched she wondered why her family wouldn't help her and were unable to stop the evil farm owner.
Lena couldn't find the calf and finally fell asleep on a rock, certain that she would die in the cold.
Meanwhile, the calf's mother had broken out of her stall to search for her baby. The cow found her calf but also picked up scent of the little girl.
Finding Lena asleep on the rock the cow laid next to her and put the calf on the other side to keep the child warm.
The next morning Lena's parents started a search and found her with the animals. When they all returned to the farm the owner threatened to kill whomever had helped Lena.
But this time Lena's mother slapped the gun out of his hand, saying "this cow has taught us what true love is all about." When one suffers, others shouldn't sit back and do nothing. "The power is ours" to change, Lena said.
"Many African tales grew out of the slave experience," said Nahlu.
She told a true one about 18 Africans who were tricked into coming to America to work. When they realized they were to be sold into slavery, they decided to drown themselves in the creek they had sailed into. As they backed into the creek, they were heard to say, "the water brought me here and the water will take me back," Nahlu said.
Not all of her stories told were that grim. "Slaves knew laughter to be healing and looked at the light side to get through the day," she said.
For example, amusing songs about ham bones arose because slaves took the leftover ham bone from the master's house and shared it to flavor rice or vegetables, Nahlu said.
Nahula said she considers storytelling a hobby. "I can't ever remember not doing it," having begun as a child growing up in Chesapeake. She said her grandfather told her stories as they sat together by a stove in his grocery store. "He knew the value of sharing tales and I had a thirst to hear them," she said.
The African Awareness Weekend began Friday night with Maulana Karenga, the creator of the African American holiday, Kwanzaa. He discussed the bond between Africa and black Americans.
"There's a certain level of insanity in people who deny their African heritage," because it's written in their faces and voices, he said. But claiming an African heritage means more than simply accepting the name, said Karenga, a professor and chairman of the Black Studies department at California State University.
"Don't stop with `I'm African,' but ask what burden does that put on me," he said. The burden is in learning the African history, building relationships with Africans around the world, and having a common vision to help the black race succeed, he said.