Do you remember being told a story at night? Maybe it was a grandmother, an uncle or an older cousin. The day was over, everyone sat close, and somebody began. In many homes across Africa, that was how children met the tortoise, the spider and the clever hare. It was also how they learned who their people were.
We wanted to bring that feeling back, for grown-ups too. So we built Tales by Moonlight.
It is a free place to read novels and folktales from cultures around the world. You can open it right now at talesbymoonlight.riascolony.org, on your phone, tablet or laptop, in English, French, Swahili or Arabic. Phone apps for Android and iPhone are coming soon.
The idea is easy to explain. You pick a story and read a chapter tonight. Tomorrow you come back, and the story is waiting right where you stopped. Along the way, the page explains the names, foods, proverbs and customs you meet, so you learn about a place while you enjoy a good story.
This post explains why we made Tales by Moonlight, what you can read on it, and how everything works.
The problem: the stories are there, but the storyteller is busy
Most of us did not learn our first stories from a book. Somebody told them to us. That is how tales, proverbs and riddles moved from one generation to the next for a very long time.
That chain is getting weaker. UNESCO, the United Nations body that looks after culture, says spoken traditions like proverbs, riddles, tales and legends are under threat from fast-growing cities, large-scale migration and changes in how people live. It also says modern media can change these old forms, or simply take their place.
You can see it at home. Families live far apart. Evenings are short. The grandmother who knew forty tales may live in another town, or another country. And the phone in our hand has plenty to show us, but most of it comes from somewhere else.
There is a second gap. Many of us know very little about the countries next door. We may know one or two things from the news, and the news is rarely about ordinary life. What do people there eat at a wedding? What do they call their elders? What makes them laugh? A headline will not tell you. A story will.
That is the problem Tales by Moonlight is built for. It cannot replace the grandmother. But it can keep the tales where everyone can find them, say clearly whose tales they are, and put new stories beside them.
Why we chose stories
We could have written more guides, and we do write those. Ria's Colony already publishes country guides and free tools on travel, trade and safety. But a guide gives you facts. A story lets you live somewhere for a while.
When you follow a character through a market, a family quarrel or a wedding, you pick things up without trying. Some researchers have also found that reading fiction can help people understand how others think and feel. We are careful with that claim, because studies do not all agree. But most readers know the feeling. After a good book, a place you have never visited no longer feels like a stranger.
Stories are also easy to return to. Nobody needs to be told to read the next chapter of a book they love. So if we want people to spend a little time each day getting to know other cultures, a story is a kind way to ask.
What you can read
There are three main kinds of stories in the library.
Novels. These are full-length books that come out chapter by chapter. You will find romance, family drama, mystery, science fiction and more. Read one chapter tonight and come back for the next.
Series. Some stories are too big for one book. A series joins several books together, so you can stay with the same world and the same people for longer.
Folktales. These are the old stories: trickster tales, origin tales and other tales that were told out loud long before anyone wrote them down. Each one tells you the people and the country it comes from, and many end with the lesson the tale teaches.
On the Folklore page you can also choose:
- Short tales: stories you can finish in under 15 minutes. They are good for reading aloud at bedtime.
- For children: tales marked so that families can find them quickly.
You can browse everything at All Stories, Series and Folklore.
Inside the reading room
When you open a chapter, everything else moves out of the way. It is just you and the page. A few things make long reading easier.
- Three page colours: Paper, Ivory and Night. Night is kind to your eyes in a dark room.
- Two fonts: a classic book font and a clean modern one.
- Your own layout: make the text bigger or smaller, and change the space between lines and how wide the column is.
- Four languages: read a chapter in English, French, Swahili or Arabic.
- Your place is saved: close the page any time. When you come back, on any device you sign in on, you start where you stopped.
You can also bookmark any paragraph. Tap it, and it is saved. You can add a private note that only you will see, then jump straight back to that paragraph later from your library.
Cultural notes: learn while you read
Have you ever read a book set in a place you have never been, and wished someone would explain a word, a dish or a custom? Tales by Moonlight does that for you.
Some words in a chapter are underlined. Tap one, and a short note opens on the same page. We call these Discoveries. A Discovery can be about:
- a person, a character or a title
- a place or a community
- an object or a creature
- an event, a tradition or an idea
You read the note, close it and keep reading. You do not lose your place. You can collect the notes you open, and your profile shows how many you have found.
After every chapter
When you finish a chapter, there is a short wrap-up.
First, you can say how the chapter felt. There are four choices: Gripping, Moving, Atmospheric or Plot Twist. Then you can see how other readers felt about the same chapter.
Next comes a quick quiz about what you just read. It takes a minute, and it helps the story stay in your mind.
One small rule keeps things fair. A chapter only counts as finished when you have really read it. Flicking to the bottom of the page in two seconds will not do it.
Tonight's Story
Every day, Tales by Moonlight picks one story for everybody. It is the same story for every reader, wherever they are. We call it Tonight's Story.
If it is a folktale, you can read all of it in one sitting. If it is a novel, tonight's reading is just one chapter. The page tells you how many minutes it will take.
Read it, and your nightly streak goes up by one. Read it again tomorrow, and it keeps going. Miss a night, and the streak starts again.
Story Trivia
Story Trivia is the playful side of Tales by Moonlight. It has four games.
The Daily Five
Five questions a day, the same for every reader. The questions come from the whole library, so you can play even if you have only just joined. You might be asked:
- Which story opens with this line?
- Which tale teaches this lesson?
- Which people does this tale come from?
- Where is this story set?
- Which cultural note is being described?
When you finish, you get a row of moons: a full moon for each right answer and a dark moon for each wrong one. You can share your moons with friends without giving the answers away. Play on days in a row to build a Daily Five streak.
Story Recall
Story Recall only asks about chapters you have really read. Reading even one chapter of a book adds that book to your games. It asks things like:
- Which word is missing from this line?
- In which chapter does this happen?
- Who said it?
It never runs out. You just keep going and try to beat your best run of right answers in a row.
Moonlight Sprint
You get 60 seconds. Answer as many recall questions as you can before the time runs out. Your best score is saved, and you can send it to a friend and ask them to beat it.
Blind Date with a Book
Not sure what to read next? Here you see only the opening lines of a few stories. No cover, no title and no author. You choose the lines that pull you in, pick a mood, and then your book is shown. It is a nice way to find a story you would have walked past.
Read with your people: Reading Circles
Stories are better shared. A Reading Circle lets you read the same story with friends, a class or a book club.
Here is how it works:
- Pick a story and give your circle a name.
- Choose a pace, from 1 to 14 chapters a week, and a start date.
- Send the invite link to your people.
Each week the circle has a chapter to reach. Everyone can see the names of the other members and how many chapters each has read. Nothing else is shared. There is no open chat, so it stays calm and safe.
Each week there is also a circle quiz: five questions on the chapters the circle has reached. You have to read that week's chapters before it opens, and the circle's scoreboard shows how everyone did.
A circle can have up to 50 members. You can be in up to 5 circles at a time, so each one gets real attention.
Share a line you love
Found a line you love? Tap the paragraph and choose Share. It becomes a picture with the story's name on it, ready for WhatsApp, Instagram or your status. You can also save the picture to your phone.
Goals, badges and your Cultural Passport
Reading is easier when it becomes a small habit. These help.
Weekly goal. Choose how many chapters you want to read each week. It starts at 3, and you can change it to anything from 1 to 50. A ring fills up as you read, and the week starts again every Monday.
Badges. You earn badges as you read. Here are some of them:
- First Light: finish your first chapter
- Night Reader: finish 10 chapters
- Full Moon: finish 50 chapters
- Keeper of the Tale: read a story from its first chapter to its last
- Library Elder: finish 5 whole stories
- Curious Mind: collect 10 Discoveries
- Cartographer: collect 50 Discoveries
- Sharp Memory: answer 25 questions correctly
Cultural Passport. Each time you finish a story, you get a stamp for the country it comes from. A map shows the countries your stories have taken you to. Over time, you can see where you have "been" and where you have not yet visited.
New-chapter emails. When a story you are reading gets a new chapter, we send you an email so you do not miss it. You can turn these emails off on your profile, or from the link in any of them.
What it costs
Nothing. Tales by Moonlight is free to read, and nothing on it is for sale.
You can read the first chapter of any novel without signing up. To read the rest, open the folktales and save your place, you make a free account with your email and a password. Your library, bookmarks, badges and passport then follow you to any phone or computer.
If you ever want to leave, you can delete your account yourself from your profile.
Phone apps for Android and iPhone are coming soon. Until then, the website works well on any phone.
Who it is for
Tales by Moonlight is for anyone who likes a good story, and we mean that widely.
Readers who want a novel to follow, one chapter a night, without paying for it.
Parents and grandparents who want a short tale to read aloud at bedtime, and who want children to know the old stories.
The diaspora, who can use it to stay close to home, or to help children growing up abroad hear the tales their parents grew up with.
Teachers and book clubs, who can start a Reading Circle, set a pace for the class and use the weekly quiz to see who has kept up.
People learning a language, who can read the same chapter in English, French, Swahili or Arabic.
Travellers and the simply curious, who want to feel what a place is like before they ever go there.
If you write, or keep old stories
We are also looking for storytellers. If you have written a novel, or you know folktales from your community that deserve to be written down, we would love to hear from you. Authors keep full ownership of their work.
- Writers and keepers of folktales: Write With Us
- Schools, libraries and cultural groups: Partner With Us
How it fits our work
Ria's Colony exists to make it easier to understand other African countries, travel between them and do business across their markets. Most of our work does that with facts. Tales by Moonlight does it with feeling.
It sits beside our other free things to read, play and use:
- African Ambassador: a free quiz card game about all 54 African countries
- African ETA Tracker: what each African country requires before you fly
- Tourism at a Glance: arrivals, receipts and growth for all 54 countries
- Women's Safety in Africa: how safe each country is for women, with every source shown
We hope a story works as a doorway. A novel set in Accra might make you want to see Accra. A folktale might send you off to learn more about the people who first told it. When you have laughed and worried with a character from a place, that place stops feeling far away.
Questions people ask
Start reading
Go to talesbymoonlight.riascolony.org, pick a story and read the first chapter. You can also read more about it at riascolony.org/talesbymoonlight.
Not sure where to begin? Open Tonight's Story, or let Blind Date with a Book choose for you.
When you find a story you love, tell us. Tag @riascolony on Instagram, TikTok, X, LinkedIn or Facebook. We would love to know which story kept you up past your bedtime.
If you are a school, a library, a book club or an organisation that wants to use Tales by Moonlight with your community, we would be glad to hear from you at support@riascolony.org.
About Ria's Colony
Africa is one continent, but understanding other African countries, travelling between them and doing business across their markets is harder than it should be. Ria's Colony exists to make that easier. We promote trade and tourism across Africa through media, learning, business development, travel information and connections. Learn more at riascolony.org.
Press and pitches: support@riascolony.org
Sources
- UNESCO, Oral traditions and expressions including language as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage (what oral traditions include, and the threats from urbanisation, migration and modern media)
- Kidd, D. C. and Castano, E. (2013), "Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind", Science 342(6156) (fiction and understanding other people; later studies have had mixed results)