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   I was so afraid for my sister because we did not have any medical supplies and we were not near a hospital. Some of the travelers and the villagers removed their shirts and clothes to make a bed for my sister to lie near the fire we had made. On that fateful night my sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. This called for a celebration, war or no war, Africans have to dance and we celebrated until the rooster crowed at 6 a.m. We sang Christmas songs. Every one sang in his or her own language. For the first time all the pain and agony of the past few months escaped. When morning finally came my sister was asked, "What are you going to name the baby"? Would you believe for the first time since our village was burned and all the young girls and boys were taken away, she spoke. She said, "His name is Gye Nyame, which means except God I fear none."

And so we celebrated Christmas that night. Christmas really did come to our village that night, but it did not come in the cars or with the travelers. It came in the birth of my nephew in the midst of our suffering. We saw hope in what this little child could do. This birth turned out to be the universal story of how bad things turned into universal hope, the hope we found in the Baby Jesus. A miracle occurred that night before Christmas and all of a sudden I knew we were not alone any more. Now I knew there was hope and I had learned that Christmas comes in spite of all circumstances. Christmas is always within us all. Christmas came even to our village that night.

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The following biographical sketch appeared in short stories magazine.com, along with the story.

The Rev. P.E. Adotey Addo of Greensboro is retired from teaching religion and philosophy at Bennett College, Greensboro, NC where he also was the College Chaplain. A distinguished biologist he is a native of Ghana, and likes African folktales.

He is often invited to Triad schools as a storyteller. He also enjoys writing and has had three collections published, "How the Spider Became Bald" (Morgan Reynolds), a collection of 25 West African folktales; and "Talking Drums" (Dorrance), a poetry collection; and Ghana Folktales, published in 1979. All his books are available at amazon.com and at local Barnes and Noble Book Stores.

Addo says he wrote "The Night Before Christmas: An African Christmas Story" a few years ago in response to worldwide atrocities. After meeting some children in Triad schools this year from war-torn Kosovo, the Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, and other parts of Africa, Addo decided to share his story with the world. Addo hopes his tale will make us all remember that "in spite of all the killings, and the massacres, there is always hope."

This story was first published in the Greensboro, North Carolina News and Record in December, 1999. Since then it has been featured in a series of Christmas sermons by Rev. Donald Messer and published in Africa, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, the Phillipines, and South America.

The story has been published on several online sites:

The story was also available at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church website.

      Please e-mail me.