Storytelling and The Arts of West Africa

​Professional story tellers were known as Griots.

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they would memorize and recite stories

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Ibn Battuta describes the griots at a festival

"costume made of feathers" and "a kind of preaching"

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​Families shared folk tales at home.

​ex; heroes, hunters, animals,

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read quote pg 167

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​filled their lives with music

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Polyrhythmic means playing two or more different rythms at the same time.

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quote on pg 169

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​or wise sayings

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a quick way to transmit wisdom

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" A proverb is the horse which can carry one swiftly to the discovery of ideas."

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"It takes a village to raise a child."

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"Every time a man dies, it is as if a library was burnt down." ​

​Like the oral traditions the arts also helped pass on history and culture.

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Music:

Many instruments

polyrhythmic : playing two or more different rhythms at the same time ​

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Dance:

movements that would match the drummers

polyrhythms

performed during festivals

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​Artisans would create art for the emperors to show off their wealth and power

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sculptures of kings and queens

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skilled carvers shaped wooden images of

ancestors to honor the dead

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they would create masks of gods to wear in religious ceremonies ​

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​We covered the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai

These empires no longer exist

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Read pg 171

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West African culture has spread all across the globe.

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