The Griot

Who holds your history?
In West Africa, written history is something new. African history was written in European languages during the colonial period beginning in the late 1800s, and has been somewhat in Arabic for centuries. But societies in the Sahel and Savanna regions of West Africa have enormous kept their own history, in their own languages, orally, in the framing of epics.
Imagine relying on someones memory to hold your peoples history. In many parts of West Africa, this job is carried out by the griot.
Griots know of spoken communication and music, Tom Hale calls them in his book, Griots and Griottes have been around for a millennium. Over time, the griots function has changed as society evolved. Once, the manful griots and female griottes were historians, genealogists, advisers to nobility, entertainers, messengers, praise singers the list goes on. Today, they perform on telecasting and radio and record CDs. Many ar popular singers who interpret traditional songs, giving new meaning to old words time binding, Hale calls it. As performers, griots and griottes are in enormous demand, not only for ceremonies and parties in West Africa, where they have traditionally appeared, but all around the world. Here in the fall in States, they tour universities to give insight into West African culture.



In a performance at Penn State in 1978, griotte Dionton Tounkara and her husband, Sekou Kouyaté performed a praise song naming some of the people in the audience, including Hale, who had invited the group.
Father of the poor people
Husband of beautiful ladies
At whose absence the city is not interesting
At whose absence the people are not happy

Be our mother
Be our father
Provide us with clothing
Be the salt we motive for our gravy
Be the oil we need for our porridge

You are our eyes
You are our mirror
You are our hands and legs
That we use to walk.
Hales flight as a scholar of African literature began with a praise song like this one. From 1964 to 1966, after...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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