from the 13th centuryPeer-reviewedWell documented
The Griot: Living Memory of West Africa
On the timeline · around from the 13th century · The Medieval World
What happened
In the Mande world of West Africa, hereditary musician-historians called griots (or jeli) served as the living archive of their societies. Tracing their role to the era of the Mali Empire founded by Sundiata Keita in the 13th century, they preserved genealogies, epics, and history through song, accompanying themselves on instruments such as the kora and the balafon and passing their art down through families.
Why it matters
The griot tradition is one of the world's great oral and musical institutions, keeping history alive through performance rather than writing, and it lies at the deep roots of much later African and African-diaspora music.