Fr Silvano Galli: The Gospel and Folktales

Witnessing to faith in Christ by also treasuring the knowledge of stories, legends and tales passed down from generation to generation by popular cultures: this is the bet of Fr Silvano Galli, who recently held a meeting in Lomé together with a group of storytellers and local cultural workers. “Faith must be proclaimed, then told.” And to bear witness to the faith, familiarity with the narrative forms used in local folk tales can also help. This was the testimony offered during the meeting in Lomé by the priest from the Society for African Missions, which has been collecting folk tales and legends for more than 50 years. Addressing the participants, Father Galli presented his pastoral journey in relation to collecting fairy tales in Côte d’Ivoire and Togo.

“It was Simon Amorofi, an Ivorian collaborator, who introduced me to the collection of hundreds of stories, teaching me how to listen to people, especially in Koun-Fao, a commune in Côte d’Ivoire’s Gontougo region, where I met a great word artist, François Kwakou,” Father Galli recounted during the meeting hosted at the Goethe-Institut headquarters in Togo’s capital and promoted at the initiative of the association Communication et Développement Intégral.
Before settling in Togo, the missionary spent more than 30 years in the Ivory Coast, in the Catholic parish of Koun-Abronso, northeast of Abidjan. In 2004 Father Silvano arrived in Kolowaré, in the diocese of Sokodé, where he continued to write thanks in part to very strong relationships with Muslims, “because almost all the storytellers were Muslims,” he explained. After Kolowaré, since 2021 Father Galli has been carrying out his work in Lomé, where he accompanies young SMA aspirants also relying on the stories and tales of missionaries who pioneered the proclamation of the Christian faith. To learn more visit missioniafricane.it

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