ART OF STORYTELLING: NGOZI’S PURPLE HIBISCUS PROMOTING ARTS AND CULTURE.
Prisca (SVC) Chigozirim@chigozirimprisca614699
17 days ago
Because Storytelling is essential to so many art forms, it has different meanings to people.
Anyways, regardless of any consideration of opinion about storytelling, it is an ancient art and valuable form of human expression.
Not moving away from the purpose of this article: Promoting Arts and Culture, let's see how Ngozi changed the perspective of storytelling.
NGOZI AND HER PURPLE HIBISCUS
Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie is a Nigerian novelist, a short story writer, and a public speaker. She has written many fiction storytelling novels, most of which were centered on post-colonial events in Nigeria. According to Ngozi, she grew up bilingual. She can speak Igbo and English at the same time. Her love for Arts and Culture made her explore creativity in fiction storytelling.
Her debut novel, ‘Purple Hibiscus’ said so many things about Nigerian politics, Igbo culture, colonial indifferences, and feminine adventures. In the novel, Ngozi used storytelling to showcase another perspective of feminine gentleness. You would agree with me that Kambili was raised by rich parents, yet she was so reserved and meek to the core.
Anything harsh or fast happened only in Kambili’s mind. Even expressing her feelings to the reverend father she loved was all done in Kambili's mind.
Here, Ngozi was not trying to bring down female gentlemen for young atrocities; she was showing people how female beings react to culture and societal norms no matter how loud they seem to be. This is generally for all females, except that Kambili's own was so obvious and extreme.
Born and bred in an Igbo land, Ngozi used the art of storytelling to portray the Igbo culture in Nigeria. From her ‘Purple Hibiscus', foreigners and Westerners saw a lot going on in the land.
Would there be more to show? Who knows the next fiction novel she is cooking now? Who knows the message better than a woman who, through her written works, promoted the Arts and culture of her people?
WHAT ‘PURPLE HIBISCUS’ SAID ABOUT STORYTELLING IN ARTS AND CULTURE.
Storytelling is interactive; a two-way interaction between a storyteller and a listener. Kambili was able to send her message across to her listeners. You don't need to crowd at her feet to hear that she wanted to be better than she was, she wanted to be with the reverend father she loved, she wanted to talk more like her cousin sister or she wanted her father to be a real father. Even though she talked less, she showed us more with her vibrant mind-words, her actions and her looks too.
Furthermore, storytelling encourages the active imagination of listeners in Arts and culture. This is where we come to the readers of the novel, 'Purple Hibiscus'. The listeners imagined the story, creating vivid, multi-sensory images and events in his or her mind.
As a result of reading the ‘purple Hibiscus', there is utmost understanding of the essence of storytelling in promoting one’s culture, arts and heritage.
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