Storyteller Leads a Safari to the Truth That Is Africa
Evelyn Komuntale of Irvine bristles a bit that some people think of her native Africa as all jungles and snakes, where semi-naked people live in huts.
OK, true: There was a brief time Komuntale had to live in a hut. Still, she says, Africa is a continent rich not only in resources, but in its history and cultural traditions. She also has lived in some very nice places there.
Komuntale has found her own way to help dispel myths about Africa. For the last few years, she has spent time as an African storyteller at local churches and other gatherings--at Saddleback and Santa Ana colleges and the Kids Stuff Expo, to name a few. She concentrates on folklore she learned as a little girl, stories passed on from generation to generation.
“Through such stories I can convey the message that Africa is about family, character and important values, such as community as a family,” she says.
Komuntale, 43, was born in what was then known as the Congo, controlled by the Belgians, in Central Africa. It gained independence in 1960 and is now known as Zaire. As she spoke to me, I vividly recalled my own grade school geography book: Its pictures of the Congo captured just about every jungle stereotype she mentioned--the snakes, the scantily clad villagers with their spears.
Komuntale lived well in the Congo; her maternal grandfather, who was African, was the village king. But her father was Belgian and a government worker. The move for independence forced her father to flee to nearby Uganda (the brief period in her life when she lived in a hut). She eventually went to good schools there and in neighboring Kenya, where she improved her English.
In 1979, on a visit to the United States, Komuntale went to work in Kenya’s tourism office. After years of moving back and forth between the United States and Africa, she settled in Orange County in 1992, and went to work at a nondenominational church. The storytelling--her own educational safari, she says--is something she has done on the side, to promote truth about her Africa.
When we met, she told my 5-year-old daughter one of her children’s tales, her folklore version of how the African zebra got its stripes. She found a captivated audience.
Komuntale uses music, dance, and sometimes color slides. “Whatever it takes,” she says, “to bring Africa to the people.”
Street Angel: This heart-warmer comes compliments of Susan M. Edwards of Huntington Beach:
By way of background, Edwards runs Project Self-Sufficiency, a private group supported by the city of Huntington Beach that helps out single parents with needs that include low-cost housing, holiday gifts and preparations for job interviews. Some seek little more than its monthly training sessions on self-sufficiency.
One of its clients was Victoria Nguyen, 38, of Huntington Beach, who has been putting herself through college while raising three pre-teenage daughters on her own. A couple of weeks ago, Nguyen left for UC Berkeley, where she has been accepted for the fall semester. She’s taking pre-med science courses.
The problem was: A summer chemistry course kept her from leaving for Berkeley in time to find affordable housing.
For three days, Edwards says, Nguyen and her daughters walked the streets of Berkeley, looking for a suitable place to live. She had signed up for campus housing, but there was a long waiting list.
While Nguyen scoured the city for an apartment, she and her daughters saw a woman struggling to handle several bags of groceries. The Nguyens offered to carry the grocery bags for her. On the walk to the woman’s home, Nguyen answered the woman’s queries about why they were in Berkeley and on the streets.
Two days later, Nguyen got a call at a friend’s home, where she and her children had been staying. It was from the housing department at UC Berkeley: A great apartment near a school was available.
Turns out the woman she helped with the groceries had connections, and wanted to help this new student who out of the blue had been so thoughtful despite her own problems.
Nguyen’s plan is to become a pediatrician and return to Huntington Beach to practice.
Says Edwards: “She has a long road ahead, but she has come so far. Never, never, never give up.”
Give Them a Map, Please: I’ve written here before about what I see as misguided people who refer to Orange County as a suburb of Los Angeles.
Here’s a recent--and blatant--example of someone who can’t read a map.
Last week at festivities for the unveiling of Little Richard’s wax bust at the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, my teenage son happened to be standing next to the reporter from cable-TV’s E! Entertainment Television. So when her report ran over Labor Day weekend, he was anxious to see it.
It started off with two anchors in the E! “news room” talking about famous sights of Los Angeles, like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and “the Wax Museum.” You would have thought they were talking about the Hollywood Wax Museum. But this became a segue to the reporter at the scene with Little Richard in Buena Park. Never once did the reporter say she was in Buena Park. And standing in front of the Movieland marquee, she began talking about “right here in Los Angeles.”
I beg your pardon?
No less than five cities and a county line separate Los Angeles and Buena Park. At least she could have said “right here in Orange County, California.”
The people who ought to be upset are those at Movieland. Or maybe Buena Park Mayor Art Brown. The reporter also told her viewers that the mayor had declared “Little Richard Day” in Los Angeles.
Wrap-Up: Komuntale’s will next tell her African stories Tuesday--at 5 and 7 p.m.--at the African Corner in the Westminster Mall. The store, owned by Kiro Kiro who is also from Zaire, specializes in African jewelry, ceremonial masks and artifacts. Komuntale heads the first of what the store hopes will be monthly featured programs on Africa.
*
Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com