Home » History » North American Genealogy » Do You Have a Griot?

Do You Have a Griot?

© Mark W. Swarthout

Your response to this question is probably the same as mine was when the topic first came up in discussion. I was eating lunch with some of my co-workers and we eventually ended up discussing genealogy. (I wonder who could have possible brought that up? grin ) Discovering a mutual interest, Yvette and I began discussing the challenges of finding Canadian sources and some of the things that helped us. She mentioned that on two occasions, she had been privileged to meet a Griot.

What is a Griot?

Many cultures have found ways to preserve their history and information in ways other than the written language. Knotted strings, nets with items woven into them, tapestries and pictures have all been used to record family records and history. In Africa, long before the written language was used, the information was kept orally. The Griot (a French name, it is pronounced gree'-oh) is an African historian. This individual is a highly respected member of the tribe who would memorize all of a village's significant events, the births and deaths, the marriages, important hunts, good and bad seasons and the wars. This would ensure that the heritage and lineage of their clan continued to be shared down through the generations. Once started a Griot would speak for hours, even for days, drawing upon a practiced and memorized history that had been passed down to them from the previous Griot.

The importance of the Griot was recognized by Alex Haley, the author of Roots, in his statement, "It is rightly said that when a Griot dies, it is as if a library has burned to the ground. The Griots symbolize how all human ancestry goes back to someplace, and sometime, where there was no writing. Then, the memories and the mouths of ancient elders was the only way that early histories of mankind got passed along... ..for all of us today to know who we are." As the population of Africans increased in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean Islands, the tradition of the Griot came with them.

And while only a portion of us trace our ancestry back to Africa and the Griot tradition, all families have their story tellers. In my case, I can think of a couple of my distant cousins that can recite key portions of the family tree along with the history and the stories that go with them. Within my relatively small immediate family, I probably have the most accumulated knowledge, but each of us has that story, that bit of history that is important to the overall knowledge of our family. Genealogists become the Griots of our families, learning a surprising amount of information that we can share without having to refer to notes. The mention of the proper name, a rumor, a location or artifact opens a floodgate of information in our minds.

The copyright of the article Do You Have a Griot? in North American Genealogy is owned by Mark W. Swarthout. Permission to republish Do You Have a Griot? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.