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156 14 What Paltry Learning in Dumb Books! Teaching the Power of Oral Narrative caleb corkery The ancient kingdoms of West africa thrived from the 4th to the 16th centuries, passing power from ghana to Mali to Songhai for over a thousand years. Though these medieval empires were distinct, they oversaw a region of people with common ancestry and shared cultural practices. One role that runs through these various empires and centuries is the community historian or storyteller, the “griot” as the french generically labeled the many regional variants. The griot’s knowledge and skill provide cultural cohesion as they connect a community’s history to the present through narrative . Trained to memorize and perform stories, griots pass on these stories to educate and inspire their listeners. This position as storyteller, historian, and social critic makes griots both powerful and feared. Before going to battle, for instance, a warrior might pay to hear of the past glories of his ancestors. When european explorers and missionaries encountered West africans in the 16th century, they described griots as social pariahs: “disreputable,” “buffoons,” “gross and indecent,” “depraved,” and “sycophants” (hale 1998:81–113). These terms were all used to describe a thousand-year-old profession that sustained social relations and cultural knowledge. classroom material that uncovers the long forgotten and misrepresented can make for a strong impression on students. The oral tradition of the West african griot provides such an opportunity, a distinct representation of cultural values students from Western cultures find counterintuitive and challenging to the worldview they have inculcated. The pedagogy discussed here attempts to access elements of a traditional West african perspective through an oral history project. What Paltry Learning in Dumb Books! | 157 Western cultural attitudes typically oppose the perspective offered by the West african griot. educators encourage students to imagine new visions of themselves that move with the future trends of society, rather than encourage students to draw strength and ambition from their pasts. instead of valuing spoken words that recount the past, they are taught the importance of reading printed material and learning to write similarly. in some ways, the values of this educational system directly contradict the cultural perspective taught in traditional West african societies. Pointing out such contrast gives students a reference for understanding a West african perspective; it also gives them a lens through which to critique their own cultural assumptions. The pedagogy developed in this chapter aims to raise students’ appreciation for oral culture and to challenge their privileged notions of literacy. Specifically, the oral history project focuses on teaching the following: (1) oral narrative is flexible enough to represent people’s lives in accordance with the rhetorical situation; (2) drawing from the past, oral narrative is a vehicle for shaping one’s identity; and (3) while narrative allows one control over how the past is remembered, spoken narrative also shapes how the past connects to the present. in this chapter, these themes are brought out in a literature course through the use of interviews. The course is titled african american Literature, but the pedagogy could be productively applied to other literature and history courses as well. after providing an overview on the West african griot, this chapter outlines the oral history project, providing samples of students’ work as they proceed through the lesson. West african griots The griot tradition institutionalizes a cultural perspective drawn from the past. Moreover , the narrative products inherited from that long history reflect the core of what the culture has passed down (Johnson 1986:25). as historian David conrad points out about surviving West african epic narratives, “These texts provide avenues to understanding the rich fabric of the brilliantly creative cultures from which the traditions emerge” (2006:76). The griot’s role, as foday Musa Suso explains, is designated to preserve history in narrative form: “griots would ride along beside kings, singing their praises. They recited the warriors’ names and words of inspiration and encouragement : Tell me what you will do on the battlefield, they might sing. Do something that i can pass on to future generations so you’ll never be forgotten” (quoted in Kopka and Brooks 1996:36). The West african history perspective does not ensure that oral texts passed down are accurate records of past events. The nature of oral performance leads the texts to be altered to suit the needs of the present. in fact, the griot directs the narrative to illuminate currently relevant themes or to bring out familial lineages to establish a...

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