Season 3 Episode #7 Black Stories Must be Kept Alive!!
In honor of stepping into the season of Juneteenth, Dr. Tameka and her guest, Beverly Lloyd (aka Mama Awan) of the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers, discuss the importance of keeping Black stories and traditions alive.
Connect with The Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers
https://www.clevelandstorytellers.org/
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Stay connected with Dr. Tameka
https://linktr.ee/drtamekaellington
Buy Dr. Tameka's book, "Black Hair in a White World"
https://bookshop.org/p/books/black-hair-in-a-white-world-tameka-n-ellington/19039637?ean=9781606354568
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During our episode, technology let us down, and we unfortunately missed the full story that Mama Awan was telling us. She so graciously shared it with me and now I share it with you...
"The Roof of Leaves” by Donna Washington ( retold by Mama Awan)
Long ago in the Congo there was a man and woman in love who loved one another. They got married and everyone in the village built them a beautiful house with a beautiful roof made of beautiful green leaves. They were so happy and so in love.
But one morning they were in a bad mood and began to argue . They argued so much that they forgot they were in love. They forgot they were happy. The husband ran out of the house and tore up the first thing he saw. It was the roof. He began tearing the leaves off the roof! He forgot that when a person tears all the leaves from the roof it means, “I divorce you! I no longer wish to live under the same roof as you.” The wife came outside and watched her husband tearing off the leaves. She saw how angry he was and remembered how sweet he could be. But she said, I won’t say anything because people will think I started the argument. I’ll wait for my husband to speak first.
People began to come and see what the husband was doing. He began taking the leaves down slower and slower because he realized he did not want a divorce. But everyone was looking and he thought- if I stop, everyone will think it’s my fault. I’ll wait for my wife to say something. So he continued pulling the leaves slowly. Everyone in the village looked at the man looked at the woman, looked back at the man looked at the woman, but they said nothing because they did not want to come between the man and the woman, but they were very sad because they knew they loved each other.
It was pure silence except for the wrestling of the leaves. Suddenly, the wife spoke, and everybody jumped. "Husband these are the dirty leaves on the ground, and the rest on the roof are fine. Come and go with me to wash the leaves in the river." The man was confused. He didn’t know what to do. The wife repeated, "I said these other dirty leaves on
the ground let us go and wash them in the river." And she started picking up leaves and did not turn around to see if he was coming with her. The husband understood and picked up leaves from the ground as well and took them down to the river together and they wash them and laid them out to dry. They even went swimming while they laid the leaves out to dry. Then they went home and put the leaves back on the roof in the village. Many wives went home and begin to tell their husband about their dirty leaves and they wash their leaves and put them back together. I don’t know if it happened again, but it happened that day. We can all remember that no matter what... we can always wash the dirty leaves."
*Happy Juneteenth Everybody!*
