Lesson 18: The Cultural Legacy of West Africa

• How has West African culture been passed down historically?


  oral tradition
• The people responsible for keeping genealogies for the Mande people


  Griots
• Stories that helped teach West African children good moral and values


  folktales
• Stores that place value on intelligence


  trickster tales
• Popular sayings

  proverbs
• Oral tradition


  learning and cultural ideas passed down orally, from one generation to the next
• Genealogy


  an account of the line of ancestry within a family
• Griots:


  • told stories, sang songs of praise, recited poems while playing an instrument
  • educated audiences with historical accounts and genealogies
  • memorized and recited every important event
• Sundjata Keita


  the king who founded the Mali empire and has griot stories told about him
• How griots remain alive today:


  • turned oral works into modern songs
  • made recordings to appear on radio broadcasts
• Folktales were brought to the Americas by West Africans who were 


  sold into slavery beginning in the 1500s
• Folktale


  a story that is passed down orally and becomes part of a culture's tradition
• Muslims published many works in Arabic that were preserved in


  mosques and Qur'anic schools
• Modern West African writers have turned oral traditions into


  novels and other works
• Functions of music in West Africa:


  • communicating ideas, values, and feelings
  • celebrated historic events and important occasions
• Call-and-response


  a song style in which a singer or musician leads with a call, and a chorus responds
• African call-and-response singing has influenced American musical styles such as


  gospel, jazz, blues, rock and roll, and rap
• Balafon


  original griot instrument; similar to a wooden marimba
• Ngoni


  stringed instrument made of hollowed-out wood
• Kora


  harplike instrument with 21 strings
• West African drums:


  • covered in animal skins
  • drummers play in ensembles that include different types of drums
  • music evolved in new styles (Afro-Cuban)
• Significance of West African dance:


  • reflected the conditions people lived in
  • celebrated a success at work
  • educated children
  • performed to seek that help of spirits and to connect with dead ancestors
• West African sculpture:


  • dramatic expressions
  • honored leaders
  • used to call upon spirits
• Wooden masks:


  • brought the spirits of gods and ancestors into the present
  • inspired artists around the world (Picasso)
• Terra-cotta (sculptures)


  a baked clay used to make pottery, tiles and sculptures
• Kente


  a traditional form of cloth produced in West Africa
• Appliqué


  a technique in which shaped pieces of fabric are attached to a background fabric to form a design or picture
• Stamped fabrics represented


  proverbs, historical figures, objects, plants, or animals
• Story fabrics were a type of West African textile that depicted


  events
• Symbolic meanings of the design of a kente cloth


  reflected the artist's life or family history, values and beliefs, or political or social circumstances
• West African baskets were made using the 


  coil method