La tradition orale en question

Abstract Questions about the Oral Tradition. — While emphasizing the wealth and variety of Manding culture, light is shed on various aspects of the institutional transmission of history in Mande. Different types of oral texts are reviewed; and the differences, seen relative to a network of correlations with "traditions in communication" and "communication situations". Kela, at present the most popular center for teaching Manding history, has set up an original system for transmitting traditions about Sunjata Keyita. Conserved by the jali (griots, bards), these traditions are found in unpublished manuscripts that the Jabate circule keeps secret—in agreement with their masters, the Keyita, who, in order to preserve their glorious past, have felt the need to create this school. The teaching of historical traditions at Kela raises the problem of how "orality" and "literacy" are related. It also takes issue with the widely accepted, clear distinction between societies with oral and those with written traditions.