Black stories matter

This chapter contains many examples of the stories I used in my rehabilitative work with black offenders. I urge you to take the stories, adapt them and use them within your own context. For many black people, a history of subjugation and racial oppression has placed a massive strain on acquiring a sense of authenticity in relation to understanding their place in the world.

Using stories over many years to inspire, motivate, and uplift many individuals in the community, or in a prison, I would see how stories enabled them to work through problems using the ‘story wisdom’ that was imparted. McAdams (1988: vi) writes that, ‘we understand people in terms of their life stories, the dynamic narrative that we each create to make sense of the past and orient us towards the future’. McAdams further suggests that, ‘stories represent critical scene and turning points in our lives’, and that the life story ‘is a joint product of person and environment’. Therefore, stories represent something fundamental about the way we see life and how we learn to navigate key turning points in our own ‘life story’. In areas where individuals are disaffected, socially excluded, and marginalized it is especially important. As damaged individuals they cannot possibly reach their full potential, if they do not know how much potential they have. Therefore, by engaging in storytelling and story making as a generative activity using storytelling as a method of communication and connection in the black community may strengthen intergenerational ties relationships. Erikson (1950) explained that generativity is the interest in establishing and guiding the next generation. Storytelling, therefore, creates possibilities for both personal reflection and self-evaluation, leading to self-growth.