Bell Ringer 08/24/11

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Bell Ringer08/24/11

• How do you think traditions are passed down from
  one generation to the next?
• What traditions, if any, does your family have?

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VI. West African Society and Culture

• Most were farmers
• Villages and hamlets
• Extended families and clans
• Some patrilineal, others matrilineal
• Produced cotton for clothes
• Variety of crops
• Millet, rice, sorghum, peas, okra, watermelons
• Yams replaced grains in the forest regions

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Women

• Served as government officials in ancient Ghana
• Enslaved women in the royal court of Dahomey also
  held official posts
• Increased sexual freedoms
• West African women could have male friends apart
  from relatives

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Women (cont.)

• Sande a secret society for women
• Taught sex education to girls
• Initiated into adulthood
• (Poro male secret society)
• Both societies established standards of
• Male and female conduct
• Emphasized female virtue and male honor

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Class and Slavery

• Royalty
• Landed nobles, warriors, peasants and bureaucrats
• Lower classes
• Artisans and laborers blacksmiths, butchers,
  tanners, and oral historians called griots
• Slavery
• Common in West Africa
• More so in the savannah region than in forest
  areas
• Variety of forms
• Not necessarily a permanent condition

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Class and Slavery (cont.)

• Islamic regions
• Masters responsible for slaves religious
  well-being
• Non-Islamic regions children of slaves
• Legal rights
• Not to be sold from the land they occupied
• Slaves in royal courts or in the armies
• Owned property and often held power over free
  people
• Agricultural slaves
• Less fortunate
• Work and privilege for second and third
  generation offspring similar to free people

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Religion

• 15th century West Africa
• Islam
• Introduced by Arab traders
• More prevalent in cosmopolitan areas
• The religion of merchants and bureaucrats
• Fostered learning and building mosques in West
  African cities

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Religion (cont.)

• Indigenous religions
• Strongest in forest areas
• Polytheistic and animistic
• One creator God and a host of lesser gods
• Saw the force of God in all things
• Ancestor worship, magicians, and oracles
• Ceremonies and animal sacrifices

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Art and Music

• Related to religious practices
• Excelled in woodcarving and sculpture
• Wooden masks and figurines
• Used in funerals, medical practices, and in
  coming-of-age ceremonies
• Musical instruments
• Drums, xylophones, bells, flutes, and mbanzas

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African Griots

• Musician, Storyteller, Tribal Historian

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African Griots

• Every king wanted a Griot to recite the history
  of the kingdom, and to pass it down from father
  to son. History wasn't written down everything
  was memorized and recited or sung
• The Griot memorized the clan's significant events
  such as births, deaths, marriages, hunts, and
  wars
• Ensured the continuity of heritage and culture.

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Griots Oral Storytelling

• Tradition passed down by storytelling
• Two forms of tales
• Human characters
• Animal characters
• Human tales dealt with creation, death, success
  love
• Animal tales focused on small creatures vs.
  larger beasts

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Modern Griots Today???
Def Poetry Jam
How do rappers, artists, poets, etc. use music as
a way of storytelling?
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Def Poetry Modern Day Griots?

• Erykah Badu http//www.youtube.com/watch?v24XgooA
  IhVofeaturerelated
• Cedric the Entertainer http//www.youtube.com/watc
  h?vcDP1HNlRE1Efeaturerelated
• Sarah Kay http//www.youtube.com/watch?vVuAbGJBvI
  VYfeaturerelated
• Jill Scott http//www.youtube.com/watch?vh4Xu0LW7
  ilofeaturerelated
• J. Ivy http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXdta43fVmes
  featurerelated
• Oscar Brown Jr. http//www.youtube.com/watch?vL5l
  IeU3P9gsfeaturerelated

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VII. Conclusion

• The history of African Americans begins in West
  Africa. Family organization, work habits,
  language, religious beliefs, legends, and more
  came to America and influenced the way African
  Americans and others lived in their new land.

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Become the Griot!

• Your task for the next 20 minutes is to develop
  your own life story in the style of a griot.
• Answer the provided questions to generate a base
  of knowledge about your life.
• Next, in the style of the Def Poets, create a
  spoken word piece, poem, or rap that tells,
  Where you are from
• 20 points for creating your own life story and 20
  points for presenting to the class.
• Be sure you use acceptable language and body
  gestures!

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Exit Slip

• In what ways do you think the culture of West
  Africans influenced the way African Americans
  live today?