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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.
West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song. West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song was a major four-month exhibition at the British Library in London – the first of its kind in the UK to explore in detail the cultural history of the region, through literature, artefacts, art, music and performance [1] – which ran from 16 October 2015 to 16 February 2016.
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. [1] [2] [3] The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry.
The Vai syllabary is a syllabic writing system devised for the Vai language by Momolu Duwalu Bukele of Jondu, in what is now Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. [1] [2] [3] Bukele is regarded within the Vai community, as well as by most scholars, as the syllabary's inventor and chief promoter when it was first documented in the 1830s.
The oral tradition continued to have an influence on Burkinabé writers in the post-independence Burkina Faso of the 1960s, such as Nazi Boni and Roger Nikiema. [2] The 1960s saw a growth in the number of playwrights being published. [1] Since the 1970s, literature has developed in Burkina Faso with many more writers being published. [3]
Prior to the introduction of written language (Arabic and Ajami) in the greater Senegambian region, spoken word was the medium through which societies preserved their traditions and histories. [5] Masters of this oral tradition , who belong to a specific hereditary caste within cultural hierarchies, are known as griots ( guewel in Wolof or Jali ...
The written sources of West African manuscripts and oral sources of West African Islamic culture have historically interacted, converged, and diverged in discourse since the post-classical period of the Western Sudan, and thus, were not historically isolated from one another. [8]
Griots are professional bards in northern West Africa, keepers of their great oral epic traditions and history. They are trusted and powerful advisors of Mandinka leaders. Among the most celebrated of these today are Toumani Diabate , Mamadou Diabate , and Kandia Kouyaté .