Story File 1

Storytelling as a Communications & Learning tool in Diverse Settings

Title: The Girl Who Married A Ghost

Summary: A folktale of a very beautiful girl becomes arrogant and selfish and vain, refusing to marry anyone in her village because she believes they are not perfect when she is tricked into marrying someone not human that borrows body parts to attract her. The girl realizes her mistake and escapes.

Audience: Children and young adults

Setting: In a village where everyone knows of the girl's beauty. 

Cultural Origins: Nigeria, West Africa

How I would use it or Adapt it: I would use a city I’ve lived in and change it to everyone at school thought she was beautiful and then the city. I would make it so that maybe she became a model and that made her very vain and arrogant. I would turn her search for a husband to looking for a boyfriend on dating apps and a professional matchmaker. I could change the villain into a Catfish (a man pretending to be someone else). It could be a friend that has experienced this before that tells the young woman after they find out the woman and man want to take a trip together, but the woman has never met him.

Sources:

Onyefulu, Ifeoma. (2010). The Girl Who Married A Ghost and other tales from Nigeria. Frances Lincoln.

Dayrell, Elphinstone. (n.d.). The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull. Fairytalez.com https://fairytalez.com/the-disobedient-daughter-who-married-a-skull/

Ashliman, D. L. (n.d.) The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull. https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/skull.html