In most rural communities, knowledge regarding life experiences passes from one generation to another. Despite being illiterate, the majority of rural adults play a vital role in teaching good values to the youth. These values include respect for the elderly, participation in community work, a hardworking spirit and attitudes towards marriage.

These values are loud and clear in the folktales and folk songs that exist in these communities. Most of the folktales have animal characters but they carry great social teachings for human beings.

It is not wrong to say that many rural youth have better manners than their urban counterparts because of the life lessons the former learn from folktales and folksongs. Many urban youth fall in love with movies from western countries, hence they are exposed to western culture while often forgetting their own cultural values.

It is for this reason that the Malawi National Commission for UNESCO, Malawi’s National Library Service (NLS), Music Crossroads Malawi, Malawi’s Department of Museums and Monuments, Tumaini Letu, and Rei Foundation have taken a great step in preserving the folktales and folksongs so that even the urban population can access them.

These organisations, on October 10th, 2024 launched a database to preserve Malawi's cultural heritage through the documentation of folktales and folksongs. The launch took place at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, Malawi’s Capital City.

This initiative, aimed at safeguarding the country’s oral traditions for future generations, involved compiling these cultural elements into a documentary format.

Director of the Department of Museums under the Ministry of Local Government and Unity, Lovemore Mazibuko, said that the project is part of a broader effort to engage the youth in learning folktales and folksongs, thereby connecting them with the knowledge of the past.

He added that the National Library Service and Music Crossroads Malawi should actively encourage youths to engage with and preserve Malawi's cultural heritage through these traditional art forms.

The database, which will be accessible to the public online via computers at NLS, contains a collection of 257 folktales and 217 folksongs from different districts in Malawi. The database will be available for educational purposes, not commercial. The database is available in three languages - Chichewa, English and Swahili - making it accessible to a wider audience both locally and internationally

The digitised documentation of these folktales and folksongs is commendable because it will help us safeguard these cultural materials for future generations on top of awareness campaigns that we have been carrying out.
(Lovemore Mazibuko.)

NLS librarian Bonny Songole said the database will help to protect and preserve the cultural heritage of Malawi and allow the youth to access it through digital platforms. The project, initiated in 2012, was funded by Rei Foundation Limited.