Homeless and penniless, nothing is spoken of what becomes of Njabala’s inheritance as she is an only child who by all rights should have inherited her parent’s wealth.

The Njabala folklore is about a spoiled 16 – year old orphan named Njabala who gets married but is unable to fulfil any domestic duties. This leads to an unfolding of events where Njabala is repeatedly beaten by her husband for failing to do any domestic work. After days of abuse, she cries out to the ghost of her mother to come to her aid as it is her (mother) fault that she doesn’t know how to do any chores. The ghost does come to help and while she performs the tasks, she demonstrates to her mortal daughter how things are done while singing:

Njababla Njabala njabala tolinsanza muko Njabala - Njabala,Njabala, Njabala, don't let your husband find me, Njabala. Abakazi balima bati, Njabala -This is how women plough, Njabala…
and she went on to show Njabala the "hows" of housework.

The ghost’s labour goes on for a couple of days to the delight of Njabala’s unsuspecting husband who believes his beatings have indeed corrected his wife. Unfortunately, one day her husband returns early from a hunt only to find a ghost doing chores while his wife looks on. Astonished and afraid he raises an alarm, Njabala is accused of being a witch and chased away from her marital home in a sad ending positioned as a cautionary tale to women everywhere. Homeless and penniless, nothing is spoken of what becomes of her inheritance as she is an only child who by all rights should have inherited her parent’s wealth.

The Njabala folklore has a handful of lessons and inspirations to present-day feminism and we hope to unfold these lessons within our extensive programme. Both the fact that it was the responsibility of Njabala’s mother (even in death) to rectify her child’s “ unjust shortcomings” and the reluctance of her mother to question these events in the daughter’s life tells how deep the roots of patriarchy have sunk but yet at same time emphasizes that women have a place in improving their own lives. Beyond illuminating the outstanding contributions by women artists, the project will also work to preserve folklores and the tradition of storytelling.