7.4.5
Describe the importance of written and oral traditions in the transmission of African history and culture.
For the start of writing in Africa was all thanks to people called berbers. In Africa, there were no written stories or laws, but with the tribe called the Berbers, they Africa finally had created a language to write down and to use as their own. Berbers were also traders who bartered goods, but in this case they had traded somthing extra. They had come to Africa and shared Arabic language that would soon be theirs. After being taught Arabic from the Berbers, the African had borrowed some of the Arabic letters and had utilized them to make their own language. This one of the imporatances, but there is one more.
Again we must thank the griots for giving Africans their oral traditions. Griots are the people who tells stories orally. Griots were very important in Africa, because they were the ones who told stories about the history of Africa or just legends about Africa. Without them it was difficult to exactly know the history of Africa, because probably nobody in Africa had written down any stories or they didn't all know how to write. The griots had made stories entertaining for people so they would want to listen. Still some had a problem of somtimes bending stories to their taste. Some of the entertaining things griots did while telling stories were to sing and act. Some Griots had to preform for the royal people and some did for the commoners.