Fausat Ayinla Takes African Storytelling to Children
By Dimeji Ige
A Nigerian author and storyteller, Fausat Omolara Ayinla, is taking African storytelling beyond books by encouraging children and young people to develop and tell stories of their own.
Ayinla, who writes across historical fiction, mythology, folklore and children’s literature, has also explored audiobooks, music and visual art as different ways of presenting stories and connecting readers with African culture.
Her historical fiction novel, Atinukẹ́, explores love, identity and resilience against the backdrop of 19th-century Yorubaland, while ÀTÙPÀ: The Narrative draws from Yoruba mythology and African folklore to tell a fantasy story about sacrifice, love and the survival of a kingdom.
She has also written contemporary stories including Career or Family Ties, This Foolish Heart Did Not Forget and The One Left Behind, which examine issues around marriage, family, ambition, grief and loss.
According to information on her work, Ayinla’s interest in children’s storytelling developed from bedtime stories she created for her son, which later became the Adventures of Bobo and Friends series.
The series centres on Bobo, a Nigerian child whose adventures explore friendship, curiosity, learning and everyday experiences. The author says the character was created to help children see themselves represented in stories and develop confidence through imagination. (Adventures of Bobo and Friends)
Ayinla has since developed the Storytelling Advantage Framework, which focuses on the role of storytelling in communications, fiction and education. The framework uses six stages — Read, Think, Discuss, Create, Improve and Publish — to encourage children to move from consuming stories to creating their own. (Medium)
In 2026, she began applying the approach through the Storytelling Advantage Programme, including From Idea to Story and From Story to Pitch sessions with young people under the Rooted and Rising programme.
In September, she took the initiative to Leicester Central Library in the United Kingdom for a session tagged My First Story, where children listened to Bobo and the Biscuit Playground before creating their own characters, settings and story ideas.
The development marks a new dimension in Ayinla’s work as an author — moving from simply telling stories to helping children find their own voices and recognise that their experiences and imagination can also become stories worth sharing.
Through her books and storytelling initiatives, Ayinla is combining African cultural heritage with creativity and children’s learning, demonstrating how stories can preserve identity while giving young people the confidence to express themselves.