Griots’ Dialogical Roots of Faith
By Patricia Turner-Olds (M.A.C.E.’05)
Faith comes by hearing…
The history of many African ethnic groups is chronicled through the medium of oral traditions. In most areas of West Africa the history is kept by a “griot.” Griots are members of a class of storytellers, musicians, and poets who orally use their gifts as a teaching methodology that identifies and reveals the active historical presence of a living God in relationship with creation. This more than 700-year-old profession is the ancestral human link between the past and present, and functions as the cultural teacher of heritage, faith traditions, and practices. Consequently, the griot shapes faith formation and transmits it to future generations. The word griot was introduced to many Americans by Alex Haley in his book “Roots: The Saga of An American Family” and in the movie of the same name.
An African Congolese proverb says, “A tree cannot stand without its roots.” The proverb’s thematic words and message establishes spiritual relationship, accountability, and responsibility. For faith comes by hearing and the charge is now ours to be God’s active presence in intergenerational teaching and learning. As Wimberly and Parker assert, “We are the human links between past-present and present-future generations of African ancestors” to contemporary and forthcoming generations. Faith formation is inter-generational and intra-generational; shaped and nurtured by a history, heritage and legacy of culturally embodied faith stories and memories. Our faith journey communicates learned wisdom experienced through dreams, visions, dance, music, poetry, and songs. Our faith is engaging and experimental. It is a faith with generational and traceable footprints of God’s communal fellowship with humanity and creation that has been intra-and inter-generational and transmitted from generation to generation. It is a faith that cannot be denied or overlooked; a faith that has struggled, suffered, and survived through life and death. Faith is organic; a ‘learned spirituality,’ that is spontaneous and fluid.
Griot teaching griot is a co-dialogical faith formation process of transgression and transformation. It creates room and space for critical thinking and encourages multi-generational, two-world cultural living dialogue that requires one to intentionally listen and hear. A griot teaching griot pedagogy is interactive and participatory. It supports student-centered dialogue and learning environments opened to honest dialogue. All generations, regardless of age, are struggling to ‘make meaning’ of what is and what can be, in a rapidly changing technological culture.
Each individual in every generation must answer these questions: What do I really believe about God? What is faith? Is faith innate or really organic? How does my understanding of ‘The Word’ impact me?
