Leading Kenyan conservationist Paula Kahumbu has created a project close to her heart in Landmark Education’s Self-Expression and Leadership Program – she is creating Africa’s Wildest Stories, wherein young Africans will interview their elders and record wildlife related stories from their culture’s richest traditions. The stories are going on a radio exchange website – prx.org – on a WildlifeDirect channel as a series titled ‘Africa’s Wildest Stories’.

Kahumbu is committed that a new generation of Africans be connected to the spectacular wildlife heritage of their continent, and that there is cultural continuity relating to this heritage from one generation to the next through the passing down of these stories. The idea came to Kahumbu after a Masai elder asked her to record his stories for the next generation.

She is partnering with the National Museums of Kenya, which has agreed to archive the recordings and put on a travelling exhibition of them. Kahumbu is working with a film team, and has already recorded 10 individuals, with a dozen stories already on the website. She intends to have at least 50 available for viewing and listening by November. The first group of stories can be heard at the prx website.