What is the main role of a griot?

The griot profession is hereditary and has long been a part of West African culture. The griots’ role has traditionally been to preserve the genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions of their people; praise songs are also part of the griot’s repertoire.

What is a griot and what was their role?

A griot is a West African storyteller, singer, musician, and oral historian. The griot keeps records of all the births, deaths, marriages through the generations of the village or family. Master of the oral traditions, the griot plays a key role in west African society.

What is the griot tradition?

Griots (meaning blood of the society in Mandinka language) are West African musicians, praise-singers, historians, storytellers, poets and advisors whose practices originate from 13th century Mali Empire. They are akin to living libraries who perpetuate wisdom and knowledge through the oral tradition.

What do oral traditions say about African society?

Oral Traditions make it possible for a society to pass knowledge across genera- tions without writing. They help people make sense of the world and are used to teach children and adults about important aspects of their culture. There is a rich tradition throughout Africa of oral storytelling.

What are the three forms of oral tradition?

The the Apostles oral preaching took three forms. Kerygma: Preaching to unbelievers. Those who had no first hand knowledge of Jesus. Didache: Teaching.

What is the importance of storytelling in African culture?

Storytelling in Africa has been manifested in many ways and was used to serve many purposes. It was used to interpret the universe, resolve natural and physical phenomena, teach morals, maintain cultural values, pass on methods of survival, and to praise God.

Why is storytelling important to culture?

Stories preserve culture and pass on cultural knowledge from one generation to another. In essence, stories keep cultures alive. Stories provide a timeless link to ancient traditions, legends, myths, and archetypes. But they also connect us to universal truths about ourselves and our world.

What is the purpose of African folktales?

In many African societies, the purpose of teaching folktales, myths, riddles and proverbs is to provide children with values such as honesty, courage and solidarity.

Why was music and storytelling important in African societies?

Music played a part in almost all aspects of African life. People expressed their religious feelings or to get threw an everyday task. Africans also kept alive their storytelling tradition. A few enslaved Africans escaped and were able to record their stories.

What was the importance of griots in African society?

Griots were an important part of the culture and social life of the village. The main job of the griot was to entertain the villagers with stories. They would tell mythical stories of the gods and spirits of the region. They would also tell stories of kings and famous heroes from past battles.

Why is Africa called the Dark Continent?

Europeans had known quite a lot about Africa for at least 2,000 years, but because of powerful imperial impulses, European leaders began purposefully ignoring earlier sources of information. They called Africa the Dark Continent, because of the mysteries and the savagery they expected to find in the interior.

What formed the basis of African society?

What formed the basis of African Society? Family formed the basis of the African society. Extended families are made up of several generations.

What purpose did art serve in African life?

What purposes did the arts serve in African society? Art was used to celebrate African religious beliefs, told stories, and served.

Who supplied the slaves in Africa?

According to John K. Thornton, Europeans usually bought enslaved people who were captured in endemic warfare between African states. Some Africans had made a business out of capturing Africans from neighboring ethnic groups or war captives and selling them.

How did the Columbian Exchange affect the African people?

So many Africans were forced into slavery and sold to the Europeans. Then they were forced to migrate to the Americas where they worked in plantations for the rest of their lives. The Columbian Exchange changed the culture of many African people to an Agricultural economy based on the cultivation of maize.

How did the Columbian Exchange change the world?

The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on earth, bringing destructive diseases that depopulated many cultures, and also circulating a wide variety of new crops and livestock that, in the long term, increased rather than diminished the world human population.

What was life like before the Columbian Exchange?

Prior to contact, indigenous populations thrived across North and South America. There were millions of people (approximately 35-75 million) 2 living in the Americas, some of whom lived in large urban areas like Tenochtitlan and Cusco, among the largest cities in the world at the time.

What were the causes and effects of the Columbian Exchange?

The Columbian Exchange caused population growth in Europe by bringing new crops from the Americas and started Europe’s economic shift towards capitalism. Colonization disrupted ecosytems, bringing in new organisms like pigs, while completely eliminating others like beavers.

What foods came from the Columbian Exchange?

The exchange introduced a wide range of new calorically rich staple crops to the Old World—namely potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cassava. The primary benefit of the New World staples was that they could be grown in Old World climates that were unsuitable for the cultivation of Old World staples.

What were the consequences of contact between the old and new worlds?

Colonization ruptured many ecosystems, bringing in new organisms while eliminating others. The Europeans brought many diseases with them that decimated Native American populations. Colonists and Native Americans alike looked to new plants as possible medicinal resources.