Tallin Tallin is a project based in The Gambia, West Africa, that aims to locate and document the rich oral tradition of storytelling - the stories told around African fires at night, the evening entertainment that captures the imaginations of so many adults and children - preserving them digitally, live and in paper form before the generation that knows them passes and they are lost to this rapidly developing country forever.

The aim of this project is to revisit these stories, get younger generations listening to them again, and introduce them into schools, so creating a strong resource that celebrates local heritage and culture, encourages engagement with literacy, and has direct relevance to the people of The Gambia and their culture, landscape and society.

 

Tallin Tallin has many elements, here are some of them:

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- A 200 page illustrated story book - 1 of which, along with a digital version, will be distributed to every government funded primary school in The Gambia for free.

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- An oral storytelling theatrical celebration, with local performers and musicians, taking place in 4 locations in The Gambia.

An audio archive containing the original recordings in their original languages.

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- A Gambian teacher-led educational resource created to explore story and imagination.

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There are future plans too… to create an online resource and sharing platform, a place where great African writing can be shared and Gambian people could upload their own writing or poetry.