How does Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté authenticate his knowledge?
How does the text/story/source use both Bantu oral traditions and Islam to claim legitimacy for the kings of Mali?
What other traditions/stories include reference to descent or lineage?
Both hunters and blacksmiths equated with sorcery/power/knowledge. Where else have we seen this?
Like my classmates, I enjoyed our discussion on oral history and its authenticity. I feel that although Djeli Mamadou Kouyate, who believes that he has the most truthful knowledge of his people’s history, there may have been some changes in the stories over time. This goes back to when a classmate mentioned the game of ‘Telephone’ and how by the time the last kid receives the message, there are obvious changes in the story as the phrase or word passes down from the next kid to the next. So, although these griots claim that their stories are the same as what their past griots have told them, I think as time changes, the story does as well. That must be why, today in modern times, we find the stories to be completely fictional.
Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté says that he has this knowledge which has passed down for generations and is claims it as absolute. When you look at it from an uninvolved party, many aspects of the story seem very far fetched, as we discussed in class. Without doing much research on the storyline, outside of the reading, I was just wondering if there was anyway in which this story could be validated through findings in any of the four categories of historical evidence?
There are plenty of other stories that reference a family’s lineage. When this question came up in class Colin and I looked at each other and both thought of Star Wars, which though fictional, has a story based in which lineage plays a critical role. However, all joking aside the story of Jesus of Nazareth is possibly the most known story in which lineage plays a significant role and can be debated to great lengths.