Professor Raouf Mama 

Dr. Mama is a Distinguished English Professor at Eastern Connecticut State University and a storyteller of international renown, the only one in the world today who tells in English, French, Yoruba and Fon, folktales from his native Benin and other parts of the world.

Literary Achievements

He has the rare distinction of winning literary awards for his writings both in French and in English. In 2021, his book, La Jarre Trouée, a historical tale from the former kingdom of Dahomey, was the winner of Le Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin, Benin’s most prestigious literary award, the equivalent of the American National Book Award.

His memoir, Fortune’s Favored Child, is a finalist for the American Legacy Book Award in 2025, and the new edition of Tropical Tales is also a finalist for the International Book Award in 2025. Why Monkeys Live In Trees, a collection of Beninese folktales, won the National Multicultural Children’s Book of the Year in 2008. Why Goats Smell Bad, his first collection of folktales, won a Storytelling World Award in 1999.

Educational Impact in Benin

The French version of Why Goats Smell Bad, Pourquoi Le Bouc Sent Mauvais, has been required reading in Benin’s secondary school system since 2012. This accolade is a recognition of Dr. Mama’s exceptional contribution to the preservation of Benin’s folktale tradition and the revival of the art of storytelling in that country. For more than ten years, Dr. Mama has been traveling to Benin from the USA to visit schools and universities to give storytelling presentations, workshops, lectures and performances. In 2019 he was honored by Benin’s English Teachers’ Association with a trophy for Outstanding Contributions to English Teaching in Benin.

Global Language Specialist

As an expert in the use of stories and storytelling as a multicultural teaching tool, especially for the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Dr. Mama has been selected as An English Language Specialist by the US State Department and has traveled in that capacity to Benin, Cuba, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Panama over the past several years. He has been a keynote speaker at numerous national and international conferences and festivals and has been a guest speaker and storyteller at libraries, schools, cultural centers and institutions of higher learning throughout the US, and in France, England, Benin and other countries.

Academic Distinctions

In 2020, Eastern Connecticut State University, where he has been teaching storytelling and literature classes for more then thirty years, awarded him a CSU Professorship, the highest academic distinction the Connecticut State University System confers upon its professors.