Storytelling

Knowledge in Africa has traditionally been transmitted orally, making it difficult to find documentation on African science, cultures and innovations, etc. This lack of written records has systematically resulted in evaluation practices in Africa being framed by external actors, often inaccurately or incompletely. To address this, it is essential to ensure that scientific documentation of African knowledge becomes more accessible across various platforms. In this context, the scientific systematisation of local knowledge on evaluation methods and approaches, in collaboration with actors from the Global South, is becoming increasingly important. 

Together with DEval’s Community of Practice and the Cameroonian NGO eBASE Africa, we are collaborating on research efforts to scientifically analyse and disseminate local and inclusive evaluation approaches, namely those that build on the storytelling technique. Around the world, storytelling has been the most vital method of communication to predict and prevent future calamities, announce the birth of heroes, encourage moral behaviour in the young and to keep the memory of one’s ancestors alive. 

In the spirit of South-South-North exchange and in collaboration with eBASE, the Cameroonian Ministry of Arts and Culture and Ministry of Research as well as PETAS (Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina), we organised a storyteller retreat in Cameroon. During this retreat, PETAS shared their rich experience in systematising the participatory evaluation approach in Latin America to explore its relevance and applicability for the Cameroonian context, particularly in relation to local methods that build on the storytelling technique. In addition to exploring the use of the storytelling technique, other indigenous African approaches to evaluation, as well as participatory evaluation methods, were further examined. 

Based on this first exchange, DEval will continue its commitment to strengthening inclusive and local evaluation approaches, particularly through analysing and disseminating the methodological importance and applicability of local storytelling approaches within participatory evaluation processes.