griot

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(n) a storyteller in West Africa; perpetuates the oral traditions of a family or village

The character, who is supposed to represent an African griot, or wise man, wears a Nehru-style suit and joins hands with youngsters to ask what they have learned about Kwanzaa.
Not all kids are happy with television's usurping the role of village griot.
In Gambia he encountered an aged griota, tribal oral historianwho traced Haley's lineage back centuries before Kunta Kinte was snatched by slavers in 1767.

"If West Africa was a living being, the griot would be the blood," Diabate says over lunch at his Bamako home, scooping couscous and fish from a silver tray on his Persian-carpeted floor. "As griots, we are the memory, we are the link between...
on Jan 4, 2007 By: Toumani Diabate Source: San Francisco Chronicle
In a statement, President Thabo Mbeki said she had been "a Pan-African griot, making souls rise in bliss wherever her voice reached."
on May 9, 2004 By: Thabo Mbeki Source: BBC News
About Hayes, Wonder said: "In African history, the griot is a storyteller. He is the village keeper of history. Every time a griot dies, it is like a library burning to the ground. Isaac Hayes was a griot of song. He captured the excitement,...
on Aug 11, 2008 By: Stevie Wonder Source: DetNews.com