By Dan Henrich
The griot, or African storyteller, was and is today, the main conveyer of the collective wisdom of the tribal peoples of Africa. Stories are presented in a stylistic way and are associated with great enjoyment. Even today among the rural Wolof of Senegal people gather in village squares to hang on each word the griot says. In fact, the Wolof are Muslims, about two million of who live in Senegal. Large percentages are non-literate, and the griot reinforces cultural norms of their adopted Islamic religion. There are many intruding influences on the cultural status quo of human beings. Culture is not static, rather transitional. Historically, this cultural status quo was influenced by increased interaction between villages, development workers desiring to drill wells to bring clean water to the villagers and by medical workers with improved health care and reduced infant mortality. In many ways, these so-called ‘backward’ cultures were wrenched into the 20th century. Culture was ignored. Infrastructure improvements were abandoned because they were ‘extra cultural’ and not desired by the villagers. Innovations which took the west hundreds of years to adopt are pushed onto less developed peoples and if they do not adopt these innovations, they are called laggards by the diffusion researchers.
In this study, I will look at the village griot, his influence on the peoples of West Africa and India through case studies. The first case deals with the Griot as opinion leader in facilitating change in Nigeria. The second case is based on a 1984 project I undertook in southern India using a traditional folk singer, or Villaputu artist to stimulate social & religious change. I will address the parallels between the Griot and modern media. My conclusions will be that modern TV & cinema does not occupy the same place as the griot in our society. TV & cinema do wield great influence and do communicate culture. Although they are more pervasive in our lives, modern media can provide mixed messages to the viewers.
Culture as glue
Since Kwasi was a child and his father and grandfather and, yes, great-greatgrandfather Kwasi and his entire village lived collective communication in the cool shade of the sacred boabab or mango trees in their villages. Beneath the palaver tree misunderstandings were resolved and critical community issues were discussed under the direction of the village elders. Villagers explained points of view and together, through group consensus, reached a final decision. But the palaver tree stood for more than group discussions and problem solving. The tree was the place of the festivals, the harvest celebrations and where the traveling storyteller would set up his camp in the evening to spin the tales of a place & time far off and free from the worries of rural farming. (Land 1992)
The palaver tree and the storyteller, or Griot, was, and still is, a place where culture was communicated initially and then reinforced time and again. Culture is defined for the purposes of this paper in the anthropological sense: as the way of life, the complex whole that consists of everything we think (ideas and ideologies), everything we do (norms and patterns of behavior), and everything we have (artifacts) as members of society (Eskamp and Swart 1991). This communication by griot was an essential part of everyday life, something of excitement, novelty and the sameness of hearing favorite stories again.
Coletta (Riley 1990) describes this holistic framework referred to as culture as traditional values, indigenous roles and leadership patterns, formal & informal associations and the interaction between these groups, as well as the flow Of influence between these subsystems and other social systems.
Culture and gradual change
Culture is not static. It is transitional. These transitional changes are less apparent here in the west because we are used to varied inputs. In 1985 when director Robert Zemeckis shot and released BACK TO THE FUTURE viewing habits in the IJSA were limited to 10 network stations. Since then, cable and Direct Broadcast Satellites (DBS) and streaming on personal devices have greatly increased the viewing options. This increased media input makes those in the west more open to change. Changes are expected and most have stories about how things are done “radically” different in just a few years- an example is how Americans spend their leisure hours. When I was growing up in the 1950s (and after TV became part of the entertainment) a lot of time was spent watching one of the three channels. Viewing was “non-selective” as Gerbner discusses in Cultivation Theory. Now, most Americans have 30-60 channels and selective viewing or “channel surfing” is far more common. Evenings are spent watching bits and pieces of many programs. When my Dad was growing up in a poor section of rural Los Angeles in the early 1920s, he & his family spent time reading, listening to the radio, or, in his case, making mischief outside. The commonality is that each of these examples all looked to mediated stimulation and entertainment of one kind or another.
Culture and abrupt change
In the rural areas Of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the transitions are more abrupt. The west was “ushered” into the 20th century, now self-proclaimed development workers “wrench” the so-called “under-developed” into the 21th century. And when they don’t adopt the “innovations” that took us hundreds of years to adopt, we call them
“laggards” – not a politically correct term! The 3rd World (or is it more PC to say 2/3rd World or developing nations) is expected to adopt democracy when they are used to thousands of years Of consensus decision making under the palaver tree. In recent years this decision-making style evolved into paternalistic chiefdom rule.
Certainly, development workers have learned that culture must be understood to communicate. But culture should not be used as a tool to convince the “target” group of what is the modern way to approach “life.” As Colletta states in “Tradition for change: Indigenous sociocultural forms as a basis for non-formal education for development,” (Riley 1990) “In order to ensure that behavioral change is substantial, cultural and structural changes would be mutually supportive… designers of development programs need to conceptualize interventions from a ‘holistic’ framework, using the community, rather than the individual, as the prime unit of intervention… ” (Page No. 303)
Traditional culture and change case studies
Case Study #1: Oral Media in West Africa and the Opinion Leader
Traditional or oral media is defined as plays, puppetry, songs and stories, music and drumming, singing & dancing, miming and storytelling and their settings which form a participatory network of communication that is a vital part of the development process. These are based in the social & cultural realities of rural Africa. Frank Ugboajah (Riley 1990) defines these as “oramedia” to denote media represented by a “diffusion network of lower chiefs, age groups, the marketplace, women’s organizations traditional priests, stall heads, village and the indomitable village crier”! Some of the elements, which make up the oral communication tradition in Africa, have been well documented. They include the performance aspect of the communication setting and the possibilities for improvisation. A Griot can arrange their materials as they please and add new twists to a well-known plot. The determinants are the context of the performance and the inspiration & skill of the performer.
Given the number of occasions in village life, for example naming ceremonies, puberty & circumcision rites, marriages, communal work, harvest, and religious festivals it is easily understood that the performers could integrate health & nutrition information.
Another area of oramedia is the use of the African proverb. The proverb is used to introduce new ideas and practices, as well as inculcate morality and reinforces cultural beliefs and attitudes. Proverbs have a great deal of authoritativeness in parts Of West African societies and associated with “experts” in the community. A person who shows evidence of spontaneous mastery of their usage is held in high esteem.
To understand more about oramedia, the Nigerian, Fiofori (Riley 1990), engaged six griots in three towns in River State, and conducted a content analysis of many of the traditional stories in their repertoire. This could be considered as an application Of Roger’s “Entertainment-education” model. Entertainment-education is defined as putting an educational idea in an entertainment message to achieve behavior changes (Nariman, 1993). Fiofori’s analysis indicated the “loading capacity” of the stories and their infrastructural content and meanings. Together with the performers, he developed ways in which information on family planning could be integrated. The stories became part of the performer’s story list and were performed in settings where the audience could ask questions, which the performers were ready to answer.
Fiofori learned that when traditional media loaded with pertinent information that is situationally relevant, the resulting song or story can be educational as well as entertaining. He learned that audiences accepted and enjoyed the way the “Knowledge
of the innovation (family planning) was integrated into the familiar stories, and that the inclusion of “foreign” content did not so change the original story so that it would lose it’s traditional meaning. He worked carefully with the storytellers and a “simple methodology was worked out to avoid overloading the content categories of messages infused into the familiar stories.”
This case study in Nigeria utilizes the professional oral narrator as an opinion leader in the change process. Because he uses a familiar medium and the new
“information” is integrated into that format it is more easily accepted. Both the knowledge, persuasion and possibly decision stages were addressed.
Case Study #2: Oral Media in India: The Villapatu Song format
India, with its rich and varied culture is host to literally thousands of traveling traditional theater and singing troops. It is an exciting time when a troop visits a remote village, sets up its rudimentary sets and embarks on telling the tale of one of the Hindu epic stories about the many gods of Hinduism. Large shadow puppets are used and the story is told in song, dance, puppetry tied together by the adroit narration of the master storyteller. These nights of epic storytelling last from sunset until the early hours of the morning for not one night, but for days and sometimes weeks – it depends, I suppose, on the money they receive from the villagers.
There are also troops of traveling musicians who play and tell amusing stories. One such format in south India is called Villapatu (“Bow singers” in English), after a longbow type of instrument that sounds somewhat like a guitar. Villapatu is a format whereby a leader narrator with his “villa” sits in front of a small group of musicians. The leader is usually an older man and the rest of the players are younger. The troop arrives in a village square and sets up. As they start to play, the crowd gathers. The attraction comes from the interaction the young men have with the old man. A story might start with a welcome to the villagers by the old man.
A sample dialogue:
OLD MAN: Now welcome to our stay, we want to tell you an old, old story..
YOUNG MAN: Older than you, old man?
OLD MAN: Yes, older than me. Now shut up whelp.. YOUNG MAN: Can anything be older than Rajiv? And it goes on. Song, story, banter, jokes, etc., for hours.
During this author’s term in India, the villapatu format was selected as a possible way to communicate knowledge of a social innovation, that of Christianity. This format seemed to be suitable to present knowledge of a fundamental truth of Christianity in a format that was acceptable to a Hindu audience. As the Villapatu storyteller was an opinion leader and somewhat of an authority, it seemed an ideal format to adapt.
During the first two months, a search was made in the south-central city of Bangalore for a suitable singer one that was older, yet young enough to be an innovator. This was important as the church had rejected such formats because they were usually used to tell stories about the Hindu gods. After identifying the singer, a man named Ezekiel George, a group of advisors was established, and recordings purchased to ensure we got the format correct. After discussions, the Biblical story of creation was chosen as the first in what was intended to be a series of cassettes. A band of musicians were retained and the leader, Ezekiel George, started the process of composing the story and developing it through a series of improv sessions in a local recording studio.
The songs were recorded and tested with a small group Of Hindus and some Christians. A local area was found, and permission gained to erect a culturally correct platform with palm fronds and straw. The ornamental Villa bow was made, and the costumes sewn. Word of mouth was advertisement enough. By the time the Showtime arrived, many hundreds had crowded empty area. Children climbed trees, sat on fences and parents shoulders. The performance lasted several hours because the audience wanted parts repeated and because of the interactive nature of the Villapatu format.
The comments afterward ranged from nominal to well interested. Just as many believed it was Hindu as Christian. All were entertained. Our research was inadequate. One solace was that the cassette was released to the secular market and sold well for the next year. Ezekiel George tried to record another cassette but was unable to get local support of the Christians.
This case study is again related to the knowledge stage of the diffusion process. It also uses a participatory approach to message development and adapts a familiar storytelling format in the process of a social innovation. It was a project that could have used a more formal formative evaluation process. One area that would be interesting to understand more about is whether the Hindu Villapatu format overpowers the Christian content so much that the audience did not recognize that it was new “knowledge.”
Culture and media relationships
As we consider these two case studies and the dynamics of the decision-making process within cultural forms of storytelling communication we see some similarities between these forms and cultural communication via mass media in the west.
In both case studies, culturally familiar storytelling formats were used. The listeners expected to be entertained and were more open to the innovation. The message was clothed in the acceptable culture trappings. The griot used story structures, the same instruments, locations, and cadence. What was different was the interwoven messages that was more acceptable over time. For example, one reason that
TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL (T BAA) is so popular in-spite Of its religious content might be because: I ) it is presented within a culturally acceptable format of the sitcom; and 2) it is personally non-threatening and there is a renewed interest in angels here in the IJSA. A colleague of mine recently bought the first two seasons of TBAA for translation into Mandarin and transmission to 11 markets in China. It will be interesting to see how a Buddhist viewer will react!
Culture and transference
In considering media impact in other cultures, we need to take cultural transference into consideration. For example, India is the largest producer of feature films in the world. These films are based within the cultural norms of the Indian — based on a formula (three songs, two dances and a fight).
In 1984, India produced 900 major features per year in commercial cinema but only had television channels. During my 1998 visit, India had 60 cable channels with markets like Bangalore having 700,000 homes connected by cable! In fact, every major city is wired by cable. This expansion of infrastructure was driven by the abundance of cheap western programs delivered by Star TV and the many satellite networks that saw the huge economic market in India’s burgeoning middle class. India entrepreneurs started importing American films, sitcoms and finally soap operas and transmitted them in English. Soon the demand for lip sync translation, or dubbing, created an entire industry.
In an article in INDIA TODAY, Sundeep Chakravarti says that the. “USA is simply no longer the foreign hand (as in oppression), it’s getting to be the mind, body and soul as liberalization, brands and TV shape much of how urban India speaks, dresses and just is.” Young Indians have an agenda — not plans; they do lunch; they go for it! A Kannada language director wanted a block buster so he shot his film in the states and named it America, America.” Chakravarti also talks about the obsession with American brand names and talks about youth “…lounging around in what could only be called brand names — all of the teeny boppers, without exception wearing Levi’s hipsters, Reeboks and chewing Wrigley’s gum.” This worries people. A culture minister from Maharashtra state says, ‘There is no need to keep away from American culture, it’s part of the world. But in embracing it, people tend to cross limits.” I wonder how deep this craze will go. A friend (DOSS 1998) in southern India who works with high society models as a photographer feels that this move toward Westernism is just •skin deep’ as these ladies will still accept the decision of their fathers in a marriage arrangement. It is clear that Indian will only change slowly, especially as it relates towards western thought.
Culturally skin deep
In this paper we have examined the impact on culture that both the griot in West Africa and his counterparts in southern India have had historically on the re-enforcement of cultural norms. The griot and the villaptu presented the status quo. In rural India, that message would re-enforce the power of the landlords, parental rights to demand brideprice from a girl’s parents so the groom will marry them, and a comprehension of the Hindu pantheon of gods and godesses.
We also saw that the modification of these indigenous media can be used to initiate change in rural societies. With the penetration of these cultures with foreign television, the griot persona is supplanted by the pervasive media influence. Now, the young are not presented with the status quo of the traditional storyteller but impacted by the innovative approaches to human relationships. The concept of the griot and villaputu storyteller is not transferred to modern media because of the innovative concepts media presents.
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