The Story Collecting Project

The primary purpose of the Story Collecting Project was to produce story books in simplified English so that school children in each region of Ethiopia could practise reading English while learning stories from their own cultural heritage.

Between March 1997 and January 2001 Elizabeth Laird made five story collecting expeditions, organised by the British Council with the help of the Regional Cultural and Education Bureaux. Two visits were made to Amhara (Bahir Dar) and Gambela, and one each to Afar (Assayita), Sidama and Wolayita, Harar, Somalia (Jijiga), Benishangul-Gumuz (Assossa and Chagni), Oromia (Goba and Gebre Guracha), Gurage (Welkite), Kafa (Bonga) and Omo (Jinka, Benetta and Key Afar).

In all, seventeen readers were written and illustrated. They contained a selection of stories rewritten in simplified English and illustrated by Yosef Kebede. Two readers were planned for eight regions, with a single reader for Harar (seventeen books in all). But only eight were actually printed and distributed to the regions as funding for the project ran out.

Here are the books that were printed and distributed:

Only some of the stories collected could be used for teaching purposes. But it was clear that the whole collection was important and needed to be preserved.

This website was created to give the folktales a lasting home. It contains all 289 stories in the exact words of the translators, as well as original recordings in some of Ethiopia’s many languages, where these were recorded to a good enough standard.

www.ethiopianenglishreaders.com contains the stories selected for teaching, rewritten in simplified English with exercise material written by educational experts.