History Keepers: The Griots of West Africa
The Moremi story is one that is widely and popularly known in the Yoruba kingdom and beyond. This story has survived through time, over decades of years.
For a story to survive this long, over a period when stories could not be in prints or social media is quite impressive. The question now, however is — — how has it survived generations after generations?
This brings us to some of the most fascinating set of people in history — The Griots. Have you heard of them before?
Griots are the brilliant minded story tellers that preserved this story and many other stories over the course of history, to remind us of our stories and the circumstances that made.
Griots are West African oral storytellers, historians, poets, genealogists and musicians. They come from a family that specialize in keeping history and/or playing musical instruments. They carry and know by heart with great proficiency the African history, eulogies pertaining to communities and families in the continent, stories of the origin of Africa and other oral traditions, which include myth, riddles, legends, folklores, panegyrics, etc. They are sometimes called bard and are referred to as Masters of the Oral tradition.
They are depository of African histories and custodians of customs and traditions. They preserve the history of their various communities before the advent of reading and writing by memorising stories, songs, family trees, tracks of marriage, births, accounts of wars, death, and so on in the community.
Griots were responsible for record keeping; they kept records of births, deaths and even marriages throughout a generation. During those days, Griots used to work as entertainers in the king’s palace, Some Griot specialize in music and poetry while some specialize in record keeping and storytelling.
The griot of profession or position is hereditary; they are of a social caste; a fellow griot marries a fellow griot. A griot passes down information to his or her children orally, who also pass the bulk of information down to their children and the transmission continues for many generations in that manner. The Griots that are story tellers and historians preserve the story or history by committing it to memory and passing it generation by generation.
Young griots are said to be trained through spending several years listening and memorizing the information passed to them by the elders in the family. The training usually starts as early as at age eight up till age eighteen after the young children are made to perform hundreds of songs and stories which make up their heritage. During this training process, the children are made to create his or her instrument played by the family. Griot instruments are of specific importance because they specialize in music most times. The common instruments they specialize are the Kora, the Khalam, the Goje, the Balafon and so on. However, the most popular instrument is the Kora — a long neck harp tote with 21 strings.
Although Most Griots are male, Females can be Griots too, most times the few female Griots specialize in voice singing.
Interestingly, but still unsurprising, Griots possess knowledge about a society that even members of the society have forgotten most times.
The place of griots is very important in the society as they stand to remind the society of its origin, serve as archive and in the restoration of balance. Griots help keep the stories of the community alive. But with the coming of slave trade, colonialism and western education, there has been a remarkable decrease in the population of griots and the profession has been trivialized as clownery.
The so-called Western civilization also introduced new ways of documenting and archiving histories. This undermined the role and necessity of the griots in modern world.
It is said that there are still many griots in modern-day Africa but most of them are travelling griots and also that many musicians, poets and spoken word artistes refer to themselves as modern-day griots.
Griots can be found in a lot of countries and villages in West Africa and they have different names according to the country or area they practice. They are called Jeli in northern Mande areas and are referred to as Jail in southern Mande, Guewel in Wolof and are called Arokin in the Yoruba tribe. However, they originally originated from the Empire of Mali.
Griots are found in some tribes in Nigeria. They are referred to as Arokin in the Yoruba tribe and Ogbu Avu in the Igbo tribe and Hausa Griot in Hausa tribe. The Yoruba people use “Ewi” that is poetry to tell historical stories while the Igbo people use ‘Igbu Avu’ a type of poem that traces and tell the history of a generation, the Igbo masquerades also perform as Griots.
Just in case you happen to travel to your hometown or village for the festivity, and you manage to visit the palace of the Oba, Obi, Emir or his equivalent, the man or woman who recites the panegyrics or eulogies of the ruler is most times a griot. Bow and show respect, because the knowledge residual in their memory is beyond imagination.
Abosede Monisola is a 300 level student of English at the University of Ilorin. She currently volunteers as a content writer for TEDxUnilorin. She is a member of the Union of Campus Journalists. She enjoys speaking and reading and she is passionately interested in SDGs and in the campaign of gender equality.
Ayodimeji Aminah is a third year student of law at the University of Ilorin and currently volunteers as a content writer for TEDxUnilorin. She is a campus journalist and an enthusiast of spoken art.
