Pre Colonial African American History

“I teach kings the history of their ancestors, so that the lives of the ancients might serve them as an example, for the world is old, but the future springs from the past.” -Griot Djeli Mamadou Koyaté [1] This quote, which was taken from Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali is a remark made by the griot who told the story to the book’s author D.T. Niane. He prefaced the story by stating his purpose as a griot, and the purpose for all griots, which is to be “vessels of speech, […] repositories which harbor secrets many centuries old.” He states that without griots, the “names of kings would vanish into oblivion.”[1] This powerful statement gives merit to the idea that griots are undeniably credible sources of African history, which is evident …show more content…
One of the most compelling arguments for griots being credible sources of pre-colonial sources of African history is the fact that they were and continue to be the primary source for oral literature within African societies. While no two societies’ epics, poetry, and praise songs, (a.k.a. oral literature), are alike, there are five uniform, fundamental functions that each griot is responsible for providing to his people. The first function of oral literature that a griot provides is to record the history of a society and subsequently impart that history from one generation to the next. This is the most practical function of oral literature because it has been and continues to be one of the main primary sources that African historians use to piece together the history of pre-colonial Africa. Because this function of oral history is …show more content…
Griots were described as “counselors of kings”[1] and considered the source for laws, records, constitutions, dates of important events such as battles and when alliances were formed, doctrines, all of the past rulers, and more.[2] A king presiding over a society was responsible for knowing the history of the land that was currently under his rule; therefore, griots could almost have been considered “second in command” due to their role in guiding the king with his rulings. Throughout Sundiata the main griot, Balla Fasséké, proves himself to be a fantastic historian for Sundata. For example, the book mentions that, “it was he [Fasséké] who gave the child education and instruction according to Mandingo rules of conduct. […] he missed no opportunity of instructing his pupil.”[1] Balla Fasséké also told Sundiata of the, “history of the kings…” and Sundiata was “enraptured by the story of Alexander the Great” and “between his mother and his griot, the child got to know all that needed to be known.” This paints the picture of the importance of griots in educating future leaders of African kingdoms. A8nother example from Sundiata involves Balla Fasséké again, who was held with such high esteem that Maghan Kon Fatta made it clear he wanted Balla Fasséké to be Sundiata’s griot, even though Dankaran Tourman