As a kid, storytelling was one thing I found irresistible. I would sit at my mother’s feet listening to all kinds of exciting stories, ranging from family history to folklore. Storytelling is a family tradition that most kids enjoy – adults too. After all, women gossip- and men too. Almost every grown-up was good at telling stories. My cousin, Godwin Governor, was an interesting one. My father was a fabulous and humorous one who could make you laugh until your jaws ache.

But there was something about my mother’s stories that I didn’t seem to decipher. They made me think about life so that as I write now, many of the stories replay in my mind. They appear so natural that I seem to live with the characters; eat, laugh, sorrow, play and do all kinds of things they do, so that even when the stories ended with Mum’s moral lessons, they began with my ethical living. Due to the impression the stories had on me, I decided to be a replica storyteller because I seemed to learn better with storytelling. And now I have a story to tell. I will try hard to carry you along as my mother did – my father too.