Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Perhaps the most famous repository of oral tradition is the west African griot (named differently in different languages). [30] The griot is a hereditary position and exists in Dyula, Soninke, Fula, Hausa, Songhai, Wolof, Serer, and Mossi societies among many others, although more famously in Mandinka society.
Senegalese Wolof griot, 1890 A Hausa Griot performs at Diffa, Niger, playing a komsa ().. A griot (/ ˈ ɡ r iː oʊ /; French:; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: ߖߋ߬ߟߌ, [1] djeli or djéli in French spelling); also spelt Djali; Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician.
In 1971, he moved to the Marcory suburb of Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, and worked on classifying the archives of West African oral tradition, that he had accumulated throughout his lifetime, as well as writing his memoirs (Amkoullel l'enfant peul and Oui mon commandant!), both published posthumously. He died in Abidjan in 1991.
Griot artists and praise-singing is an important musical tradition related to the oral history of West African culture. Traditionally, musical and oral history as conveyed over generations by griots are typical of West African culture in Mande, Wolof, Songhay, Serer and, to some extent, Fula areas in the far west.
However, there is also another place called Madina Findifeto in southern Senegal, as mentioned in the third part of the Pakao Book and in some oral traditions." [11] West African manuscripts contain an anonymously authored composition on cosmogony written on six folios and includes a colophon that states: "Finished here on Sunday by the hand of ...
Traditional African religions also have elements of totemism, shamanism and veneration of relics. [20] Traditional Vodun dancer enchanting gods and spirits, in Ganvie, Benin. Traditional African religion, like most other ancient traditions around the world, were based on oral traditions. These traditions are not religious principles, but a ...
Islam-influenced West African music commonly includes the use of stringed instruments like the goje, while more secular traditional West African music incorporates greater use of drums such as the djembe. Contemporary styles of music in West Africa have been influenced by American music, African jazz and gospel music. [2]
West African mythology is the body of myths of the people of West Africa. It consists of tales of various deities, beings, legendary creatures , heroes and folktales from various ethnic groups. Some of these myths traveled across the Atlantic during the period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to become part of Caribbean , African-American and ...