Andreen Patterson
@02663062
Humanities I (11:10-12:30)
Paper 1
I Am the Word
The Malian griot says, “I Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate, am the result of a long tradition. For generations we have passed on the history of kings from father to son. The narrative was passed on to me without alteration, and I deliver it without alteration, for I received it free from all untruth.” In both books Sundiata and Things Fall Apart, proverbs are transmitted throughout generations the same way, but stories detailing the past (people, events, and etc.) are transmitted differently. These story telling methods consisted of griot oral tradition and folk oral tradition, without the use of formal schooling these methods were used to teach children and to preserve the…show more content… The job of a griot stays in a family; Djeli Mamoudo Kouyate derived his knowledge from his father Djeli Kedian, who also got it from his father. The griot who bears the title Belen-Tigui is a very respectable gentleman who has toured Mali, he has gone from village to village to hear the teaching of great masters. He has learnt the art of historical oratory through long years; he is, moreover, bound by an oath and does not teach anything except what his guild stipulates, for, say the griots, “All true learning should be a secret.” They are the time keepers of Mali, without griots the names of kings would vanish into oblivion, they are the memory of mankind; by the spoken word they bring to life the deeds and exploits of kings for younger generations. Nare maghan presented Mari Djata with the gift that every successor gets, his own griot. A personal griot will be inseparable friends for life with his king. A griots credo was to teach the history of the ancestors, so that the king may know the art of governing Mali to rule justly from the principles the ancestors have bequeathed to them. Each griot of their own time made their own songs and stories of experiences, so that they could past it on to the next generation of griots. An example of this is would be the gathering of all the griots after the birth of the lion child, the griots composed a song in…show more content… The men like Okonknwo who are seen as masculine figures tell stories that are heroic involving bloodshed and war. As a part of maternal care, mothers also had story sessions with their children. The women usually told character building stories; an example of this, was Ekwefi telling Ezinma a story about a greedy, cunning tortoise. The tortoise persuades birds to take him to a feast in the sky, where he tricks everyone into letting him eat and drink the best parts of the food and wine. Trying to get back home the tortoise jumps from the sky but lands on a pile of hard things and his shell breaks into pieces on impact. A medicine man puts it together again, which is why tortoises shell is not smooth. In the tale of the Tortoise and the Birds, we lesson learned is that you should not take advantage of others because if you do, they may return the favor. Another lesson was that misrepresentation and trickery do not function well in a social atmosphere. The story never gave an opinion about how the tortoise was acting; it merely stated the facts and allowed the listener (Ezinma) to make her own judgments on the turtle’s actions. In most of these folk stories we see a moral or a lesson to be learned from them; children are told these stories so that they may be able to learn how to act