Around the fire, far from home: Hakyoto Mkairirizi

When we started Hakyoto Mkairirizi in July, we did not know whether anyone would come on a Friday evening. Forty people did, and the children answered more riddles than their parents.

The idea is simple. At home, stories were told by the fire after the evening meal: stories of the Bachwezi, of clever animals, of how things came to be, and riddles that the youngest were expected to answer. Here in the UK many of our children have never had that evening. So once a month we make one, online and in a front room in London.

In August the elders told stories of the Bachwezi. In September we spent the evening on proverbs, and the discussion ran long past nine. Recordings are going into our story archive so that families who missed an evening can listen again.

The next evening is on the third Friday of October, on empaako and what our names mean. Bring the children.