Griot facts for kids
A griot (pronounced GREE-oh) or Jeli is a very important person in West Africa. They are like a mix of a historian, storyteller, musician, and teacher all in one! It's hard to find just one English word to describe everything a griot does. They are known for remembering and sharing the history of their people. Not every griot does all these things, but these are some examples of their many roles.
What Griots Do
A griot was often a public servant, an artist, and even a royal advisor. Their job was to help the king or queen they served. They kept the oral history of their community or people alive. This means they remembered stories, events, and family trees without writing them down.
For people from West Africa who were taken to the Caribbean and the Americas, griots were a vital link. They helped keep their African culture and history alive. Griots were the only ones who could remember and share this past. They were like traveling poets, diplomats, and even fortune-tellers. Every family, village, and warrior group had its own griot. They kept track of all births, marriages, deaths, and battles. Griots were also believed to see into the future. They could remember the history of every person in a family or group going back for hundreds of years.
How to Become a Griot
Being a griot was usually a family tradition. The job was passed down from father to son. A person was born into a griot family and trained from a young age. They learned all the special skills needed to be a griot.
Sometimes, if you weren't born into a griot family, a master griot might teach you. Today, there are some schools that teach griot arts. However, these schools often focus more on the music part of being a griot. They don't always teach the important storytelling and history skills.
Images for kids
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Senegalese Wolof griot, 1890
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Griots of Sambala, king of Médina (Fula people, Mali), 1890
See also
In Spanish: Griot para niños
