Much of Africa’s history and wisdom has been kept not on paper but in voices: epics sung by griots, chants performed with masks, verses learnt by heart, and tales told at the fireside. This exhibition brings together examples that UNESCO recognises as intangible cultural heritage, and stories you can read and hear in African languages.
1. Epics and their keepers
- The Sosso-Bala: the balafon of the Kouyaté griots and the epic of Sunjata (Guinea).
- Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah: Egypt’s sung epic of the Bani Hilal.
2. Words with power
- The oral heritage of Gelede: chants in Yoruba that honour mothers.
- Ifa: the 256 odu and their verses.
3. Tales for everyone
- The storytellers of Jemaa el-Fna, Marrakesh.
- Anansi and Wisdom in Amharic, Why hippos have no hair in Kiswahili, Nozibele in isiZulu.
- An Ibibio folktale from the Mbaganire podcast.
Your turn
Is there a story your family tells? Write it down in My Roots Notebook, or, with the teller’s permission, share it with the Griot Fireside.
Reflect
Which story did you hear as a child that you would most like to pass on, and to whom?
There is no single right answer.