Storyteller · Author · Professor

Raouf Mama

Award-winning author and the only storyteller in the world today who tells the folktales of Benin in English, French, Yoruba and Fon.

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Laureate: Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin
Teaching: 30+ years at Eastern Connecticut State
Envoy: U.S. State Dept. English Language Specialist

Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin

La Jarre Trouée, 2021

Multicultural Children’s Book of the Year

Why Monkeys Live in Trees, 2008

Storytelling World Award

Why Goats Smell Bad, 1999

CSU Professorship

Highest distinction of the CSU system, 2020

About

A voice that carries Benin’s stories across languages

Dr. Raouf Mama is a Distinguished Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University and a storyteller of international renown.

He is the only storyteller in the world today who tells, in English, French, Yoruba and Fon, folktales from his native Benin and other parts of the world, and he has the rare distinction of winning literary awards for his writing in both French and English.

For more than ten years he has travelled from the United States to Benin to visit schools and universities, giving storytelling presentations, workshops, lectures and performances. Selected by the U.S. State Department as an English Language Specialist, he has taken storytelling as a multicultural teaching tool to Benin, Cuba, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Panama.

He has been a keynote speaker at national and international conferences and festivals, and a guest storyteller at libraries, schools, cultural centres and universities throughout the United States, and in France, England, Benin and beyond.

1999
Why Goats Smell Bad, his first collection of folktales, wins a Storytelling World Award.
2008
Why Monkeys Live in Trees is named National Multicultural Children’s Book of the Year.
2012
Pourquoi le Bouc Sent Mauvais becomes required reading in Benin’s secondary schools.
2019
Honoured by Benin’s English Teachers’ Association for Outstanding Contributions to English Teaching.
2020
Awarded a CSU Professorship, the highest academic distinction of the Connecticut State University System.
2021
La Jarre Trouée, a historical tale of the kingdom of Dahomey, wins the Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin.
2025
Memoir Fortune’s Favored Child is a finalist for the American Legacy Book Award; Tropical Tales for the International Book Award.

Books

Award-winning writing in two languages

Raouf MamaLa Jarre Trouée

Grand Prix Littéraire du Bénin, 2021

La Jarre TrouéeFR

A historical tale from the former kingdom of Dahomey, honoured with Benin’s most prestigious literary award.

Finalist, American Legacy Book Award 2025

Fortune’s Favored Child

His memoir: from a childhood brush with death in Benin to graduate school at the University of Michigan. Northwestern University Press.

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Multicultural Children’s Book of the Year, 2008

Why Monkeys Live in Trees and Other Stories from Benin

Beninese folktales that answer the curious questions of the natural world, through the clever antics of animals.

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Storytelling World Award, 1999

Why Goats Smell Bad

His first collection of folktales. Its French edition, Pourquoi le Bouc Sent Mauvais, has been required reading in Benin’s secondary schools since 2012.

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The Barefoot Book of Tropical Tales

An illustrated anthology of tales from tropical lands around the world.

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Pearls of Wisdom

Fables, folktales and children’s stories bridging oral and written traditions.

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Raouf MamaTwo Ears and One Mouth

Two Ears and One Mouth

A West African folktale about the wisdom of listening more than you speak.

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Speaking & Workshops

Bring the art of storytelling to your audience

For more than thirty years Dr. Mama has taught storytelling and literature at Eastern Connecticut State University. He brings the same craft to conferences, classrooms and stages around the world.

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