Griot

What it means

A griot is a West African professional musician, poet, and storyteller. Griots preserve the history of ruling houses, families, and peoples and pass this knowledge on orally from generation to generation. Traditionally they belong to a hereditary occupational group of their own in which music and language are cultivated together.

Musical use

In the Mande cultures of West Africa, for instance in Mali, Guinea, and Senegal, griots are also called “jeli” or “jali.” They accompany their narratives and praise songs with instruments such as the bridge harp kora, the xylophone balafon, or the lute ngoni. Famous is the epic of Sundiata, the founder of the Mali Empire, which griots handed down orally over centuries. Griots sing at festivals, weddings, and ceremonies and act as mediators, advisers, and keepers of memory.

The griot should be distinguished from the European minnesinger or minstrel, with whom he shares the role of poet-musician but who was embedded in a different social system. He also differs from the pure instrumentalist because the spoken and sung tradition stands at the center.

Performance practice

First listen to griot music for the link between language and instrument: the kora does not merely accompany but answers the singing. If you try to play such music yourself, learn the patterns orally by listening and playing back, and take on the attitude that music passes history on.