REACT Series Powered by ActionAid
The Power of Activist-Led, Educational and Engaged “Storytelling”
NGO ‘storytelling’ typically focuses on the more personal aspects of activism, often from a Western frame of international development. This approach is of course valuable in many ways. Engaging in activism is a very intense personal experience, one that often includes dedication, strength, resilience, pain and loss. Storytelling helps humanize people—activists—who oppressors do everything in their power to dehumanize. Telling their own ‘stories’ to an international readership helps activists build bridges to reinforce conscientious external support. And in my experience, many human rights defenders want to tell their stories. Yet the predominant storytelling practices only harness part of what activist writing and activist-writers are capable of. […]