Storyteller delights Mt. Pleasant youth

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News

Want to hear a story, or maybe four? Then, if given the opportunity to listen to Tejumola (Teju) Ologboni, don?t hesitate to take it.

Students from Mt. Pleasant?s four elementary schools were captivated Wednesday morning during a 45-minute presentation in the Van Allen Elementary School gymnasium by Ologboni. The Kansas native sprinkled humor and a bit of bongo playing into his talk, which touched on race.

Ologboni?s presentation was sponsored by Iowa Wesleyan University as part of the university?s Black History Month commemoration.

Ologboni, who says he injects humor into his programs to ?keep the audience?s interest,? said he came by his art naturally. Ologboni?s parents, grandparents and even his great-grandfather were storytellers.

Most of Ologboni?s stories are drawn from African traditions and African American history and folklore. As an educator he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (where he received his bachelor?s degree in art and education), Marquette University in Milwaukee and Dominican College in Racine, Wis.

Now, he is in his 44th year of storytelling, making from 300-400 appearances annually with audiences ranging from tots to senior citizens.

?I go from nursery school groups to maximum security prisons and talk to all age groups,? he noted. His storytelling has taken him to Mexico, Canada, four European countries and seven African countries.

Although his address to elementary school students was long on humor, he did have some food for thought. Toward the end of his presentation, he urged the students to think before becoming angry.

?When you get mad when somebody does something to you, you stop thinking and do things that will put you in trouble or danger,? he told the students.

He also had the students look around the gymnasium, saying, ?When you look at each other, you realize there is not much difference between you and them.?

Ologboni, who moved with his family to Milwaukee, Wis., when he was 11 years old, told of a portion of his childhood spent in segregated schools. ?The black and white people didn?t interact. The blacks lived on one side of the tracks and the whites on the other side?.Before the schools were integrated, I never saw a white person,? he quipped.

A storyteller, naturally, has to be a talker, and Ologboni said that never has been a problem for him although it did get him in hot water at times while growing up. ?I talked too much in school,? he reflected. ?I never got into trouble for stealing or fighting, but for talking.?

He encouraged his audience to avoid trouble. ?It is easier to stay out of trouble then to get out of trouble.?

Nick Carlsen and Katherine Watson, fifth-grade students at Van Allen Elementary School, said they enjoyed Ologboni?s storytelling.

?I like it when he was drumming because everyone was able to interact,? Carlsen reflected.

Watson said she enjoyed the storytelling ?because it was funny.?

Watson said the one important tidbit she took from Ologboni?s address was that race and color have nothing to do with importance. ?It doesn?t matter what your race or color is or where you came from. You are important no matter where you came from.?

Meanwhile, Carlsen said that although people are different, ?you shouldn?t make fun of them for being different.?

In fact, Ologboni ended his presentation by saying color and race play no role in importance. ?You have to look at each other and realize there is not much difference between you and them.?