Oral Literatures

Abstract European-language writers like Senghor, Kane, Achebe and Soyinka are not the only professional authors in West Africa. The region is also dense with ‘ >griots> ’, who fulfill vital social and cultural roles as performers and interpreters, as praise-singers, oral historians, storytellers, singers, dancers, and drummers. Alongside these professional >griots , ordinary people also frequently participate in oral performances, singing a person’s praises, or, as we will see, publicly abusing an individual for bad behaviour.