Wakanyi Hoffman
on Ubuntu and African Folktales
“In Sala’s home, stories were passed down by Grandmother. She had so many treasured memories, that she kept as colourful beads, threaded through her long necklace.
One more story, please? Sala would beg.
Grandmother would sigh, but Sala could tell from the twinkle in her eye that she enjoyed their secret game. And Sala loved the stories that only Grandmother knew.”
Growing up on the outskirts of Nairobi city, Wakanyi Hoffman’s childhood was also filled with heartwarming folktales. She decided to become an Ubuntu Keeper of Indigenous Wisdom who carries her ancestors’ stories with her wherever she goes. A storyteller, author, mother, Wakanyi is a "global nomad" with strong African roots on a mission to teach children to embrace the whole world as their home.
As a former journalist, she discovered it's quite hard to engage children to understand the SDGs, a language quite complex and technical. She asked herself how we can package this in a way that is appealing, valuable and authentic. Through the “Grandmother approach”: by bridging cultures through storytelling, and using folktales as a pedagogical approach to learning more about who we are:
“I believe a story is a living thing, and it lives from one person to the next. As soon as we have a conversation, we exchange some form of story. You will carry part of my story with you, and I will carry part of your story with me. That’s the link. The power of storytelling is such that we can recall the past by beginning from where we’re standing.”
Wakanyi founded The African Folktales Project, an open resource that lends a voice to indigenous peoples’ knowledge about sustainable development and environmental citizenship. By collecting African folktales that contain ideas about sustainability, she discovered that all folktales have some lesson or idea about the future:
“A lot of stories are about the conflict between humans and wildlife, and about climate issues like drought. There are a lot of African folktales related to climate change. I started taking stories tied to the 17 SDGs and reimagining them. I ask the children to remake them, recreate them, passing down tales and leaving them incomplete, so they can have ownership of the stories.”
As the author of “Sala, Mountain Warrior” or “The Legend of the Dancing Baobab Tree”, Wakanyi is deconstructing the idea of folktales being held by a certain group of people. They’re universal stories, as we all have indigenous roots. Stories of love, sharing, fairness, courage, transformation, adventure, caring, resilience. Stories that we can enjoy, use in our own lives, and pass on to our loved ones. And that’s what keeps the seed of inspiration alive.
Read Wakanyi Hoffman’s answers for Inspirators and follow the empowering path your Grandparents carved for you!
Thank you, Wakanyi, for being an Ubuntu Keeper!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Wakanyi Hoffman
Company / Institution: The New Institute Hamburg
Title: Ubuntu Speaker/ African Indigenous Knowledge Scholar
Website: www.thenew.institute
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wakanyi-hoffman-author-77a9671a4/
Country of origin: Kenya
Country you currently live in: The Netherlands
Your personal definition of Regeneration: Regeneration is the ability to live in reciprocity and interdependently with all that is alive. It requires being aware of how life on earth is improved or destroyed by our individual actions for or against the natural circle of life. To regenerate is to be in perpetual acceptance of inner transformation for optimal outer flourishing.
Main business challenge you face: Fixed mindsets on the role of money as a means to control rather than to create opportunities for collective growth. I’m also concerned about the dominant (capitalist) worldview that has and continues to shape our global business practices. It is an outdated practice whose original principles have been forgotten.
Main driver that keeps you going: Children and their positive energy and innocence. The innocence of the heart is an underrated superhuman quality.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: Discernment between wisdom and knowledge, thinking and reasoning. I’m a proactive person driven by a deep empathy for others and self-compassion.
The trait you most value in others: Truthfulness and the ability to volunteer to help where help is needed with no expectations.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: “Laddership” - pulling each other up for a common goal.
Something that brings me joy is sharing personal narratives that often lead to discovering something new about our common humanity. I am particularly passionate about passing down wisdom from the lived experience of being in communion with nature. I believe wisdom keeping is the mark of adulthood and we each owe children a slice of that collective wisdom. My source of wisdom is from ancient African civilizations. I am devoted to remembering what our ancestors learned and bringing that knowledge to the rest of the world.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Wangari Mathai - first African female Nobel Prize winner for her indigenous wisdom and knowledge and the way in which she planted trees to challenge ideas about gender equality. She used Mother Nature to raise the feminine authority in society and that is truly remarkable.
Nelson Mandela for his pragmatism as a leader. Desmond Tutu for his sense of humor, the Dalai Lama for his noble friendship with Desmond Tutu, Ruth Bader Ginsburg for her ability to dissent while holding space for her opposers to dissent from her position too.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the regeneration journey: Understand the principles of reciprocity. This comes down to understanding the worldview that shapes your business model. Reciprocity is all about infinite growth for all. It is the mobius design built for infinite progress. Domination leads to short-term gains for long-term suffering and premature extinction and that is sadly where many businesses and institutions find themselves today.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: Sustainable development, and innovation. From an indigenous perspective, sustainability is synonymous with individuation. Each individual is preoccupied with personal growth for collective flourishing, while innovation is what happens when individuals use their collective talents to serve the needs of the community that nurtured their individual growth. To me, sustainable development is an oxymoron and to think of innovation only in terms of technology is to be foolhardy. These buzzwords are taking human intelligence out of the equation and that is a dangerous path to follow.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: There is always something progressive to celebrate. Build on that. Remember that you sit under the shades of trees that you did not plant. It is equally important for you to plant new trees whose shades others will sit under and remember you for your role in nurturing life on Earth.
Books that had a great impact on you:
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
One Billion Black Anthropocenes or None - Kathryn Yusoff
Farewell to Reason - Paul Feyerabend
The Lumbung Stories - Harreit C. Brown
and the list is endless.
Must-reads for any regenerative professional: The Politics of Being – Thomas Legrand.
Movies or Documentaries you would watch all over again: Earthrise by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee .
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently: www.servicespace.org, The Big Cat People Podcast.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Joao Gilberto, Fatoumata Diawara, Sona Jobarteh, original Amapiano, Joseph Bologne- Chevalier de Saint Georges (the black Mozart).
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: On the foothills of Mt. Machapuchre, Nepal, Southern Thailand, Cabo san Josè - Mexico, Hvasser - Norway, Addis Ababa - Ethiopia, Baguio - Philippines, Singapore city, Champagne Ridge - Kenya, Rutundu - Kenya, L.Nsivasha - Kenya, Tirol - Austria, Tuscany - Italy, Bretagne - France, Windsor - England, Terschelling - Netherlands, Giethoorn - Netherlands.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Nipun Mehta (Service Space)
Will Ruddick (Grassroots Economics)
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on:
Community Inclusive Currencies
Pay-It-Forward (Service Space volunteer model)
Best places for business networking (online or offline): LinkedIn, Forest walking or anywhere you are likely to find your “tribe”.
Events we should attend: Awaking Calls (www.awakin.org).
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why: Service Space (www.servicespace.org) a global volunteer organization modelled on the pay-it-forward policy. At heart, I am a volunteer and this is the place where volunteerism is changing the world, one heartivist at a time.
Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses, trainings, or certifications that really teach us how to have an impact: Service Space learning pods, Global Oneness courses.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: There are silent, unsung heroes doing amazing work in local communities. There is a rise in consciousness about the state of the planet and what individual actions one can take to be the change for collective flourishing. Also, our children around the world are aware and proactive citizens.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: The regression happening in gender equality. This is alarming. I am also concerned about the lack of human wisdom in AI and the bias behind the information search engines.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Feminism. We can all tap into our softer nature to nurture our world.
The #inspirator you are endorsing for a future edition of the newsletter is:
Bettina Ludwig
Steve Richards
Quote that inspires you:
“We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Your own quote that will inspire us:
