As a young adult, Owhonda studied under a griot. Traditionally they preserved history because the majority of the population was illiterate. Today however, 88 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 24 is literate according to Earth Trends, but that hasn’t stopped the griots from practicing.
‘‘The stories they tell are used to ground the children into the culture,’’ Owhonda said. ‘‘Lessons learned through stories stay with you more than experience, as I, the teller, and the listener connect.’’
Griots have a saying to keep the listeners’ attention. The Ikwere griots say: ‘‘Ati,’’ meaning ‘‘Are you with me?’’ To which the listeners reply ‘‘Aye,’’ meaning ‘‘Go on, I am with you.’’ Every tribe has a different saying, but they all mean the same thing.
‘‘It helps usher you into the story, like you use ‘once upon a time,’’’ Owhonda said. ‘‘It also helps, when some guy isn’t paying attention to the story, but staring at the girl sitting the row up, draw him back into me.’’
Owhonda graduated from Yugoslavia’s University of Titograd in 1979, where he earned an Associate’s Degree in Slavic languages. In 1980 he moved to Fort Worth, and in 1985 he graduated from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor’s in International Affairs. He uses what he learned in college with his childhood memories to enhance his stories.
‘‘Everyone is a storyteller, we just tell it differently,’’ Owhonda said. ‘‘Professionals embellish and hold the audience in the palm of their hand. Every story is a vignette as how it pertains to yourself, we draw on the experiences of the audience.’’
Not only does Owhonda captivate listeners with his tales, but he is also the author the children’s books Forest of Doom and Musa the Mouse, reference books A Nation of Many Peoples and Congo: Modern Nations of the World Series and the screen play Akeem and the Golden Wristband. In addition, a number of his short stories have been published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
‘‘The current book Wallibee is waiting to be published, [which] took me back to my childhood as I got to go back to Africa,’’ Owhonda said. ‘‘It is fiction, yet ground in reality, based on the culture and ceremonies of the people.’’
Owhonda also guided students at a number of workshops on Wednesday, emphasizing using students’ oral heritages and inspiring students to write.
‘‘A writer writes and it doesn’t matter what,’’ he said. ‘‘ I see the characters come alive and I become the recorder, not the writer, seeing the scene with my inner eye.’’For the eighth consecutive Literary Festival, author John Owhonda mesmerized underclassman as the keynote speaker Wednesday. With his compelling ability to tell stories mixed with African traditionalism and life lessons, nobody can resist to yell, ‘‘Aye,’’ when he plucks at calimba, the African finger piano, with an ‘‘Ati.’’
‘‘The most important thing is making sure the audience is with you,’’ Owhonda said. ‘‘All people have the basic needs: love, care for loved ones, to be fed and have people around you, and so you can draw on these.’’
Dallas Morning News
All booked up at Literary Festival
March 20, 2006
By GAIL SCHULTZ
...workshop leaders included popular festival favorites such as award-winning author and journalist Joyce King, teacher and Caribbean specialist Marilyn Lamin, playwright Vicki Cheatwood, essayist Spike Gillespie and Nigerian storyteller John Owhonda. While the upper-classmen were addressed by Gibbons in the school auditorium, Owhonda held the freshmen and sophomores spellbound in a story-in-the-round setting in the field house.
