Clive Caines Cultural Contributor
When writer and broadcaster Gaylene Gould aired her documentary ‘Modern Day Griots’ on BBC Radio 4 it added yet more fuel to the importance of social messages debate. Gould’s documentary also asked us to think about the value of traditions and the need for a collective memory.
When I set out to interview Gaylene I wanted to find out why she was so drawn to the griot tradition. I also wanted to discuss why it was that so many artists, not born of the tradition, were willing to take on the title Griot or had the title thrust upon them; I’ll admit that Marshal Mcluhan’s exhortation ‘the medium is the message’ lay behind these questions. For me, Mcluhan urges us all to not only pay attention to messages but also the vehicle used to present messages: therefore we are urged not only to pay attention to the messages of the Griot but the tradition itself.
The documentary’s defining of a Griot made for a much fuller understanding of
Gaylene Gould. Photo courtesy spreadtheword.org.uk
the role than I had previously held: someone whose role it is to advise those of high standing and to be the people’s chronicler, historian and genealogist’. Furthermore the Griot is expected to act as a cohesive force, using his or her voice and musical ability to provide philosophical and rhetorical knowledge.
The imagination doesn’t have to travel far to understand why some artist, such as Bob Marley, are talked about as being griots despite not being born into the tradition, which would negate them in the truest sense of the African tradition. The very fact that the likes of Marley offer words of wisdom in song, reminds the African diaspora of its past and calls to account the actions of those in power meets with what Gaylene recognises as a griot position “that we are more than ourselves.”
Expecting musicians to always produce work with a social responsibility does set up a dilemma as it ultimately reduces creativity to nothing more than proscribed ideological dogma. How many hip-hop artists have been condemned for their obsession with bitches and ho’s, conspicuous consumption and exhortation to violence when the view could be taken that ‘it is only music’. Gould is keen to point out that artists, quite rightly, want to be able to “do what they feel.” However, optimistically she feels that, “In the African diaspora tradition an awareness of responsibility runs through a lot of our artforms.”
Embattled Hip Hop Artiste Snoop Dogg. Photo courtesy forum.sensiseeds.com
So what of the need for a collective memory? For me it is not just the African diaspora that has a broken collective memory the effects of mass migration followed by globalisation has led to many peoples being separated from their cultural roots. This does not have to be a problem if you are always prepared to only live in the here and now. In living without a collective memory Gaylene fears that what is lost is ‘continuity’. Preserving tradition is one way of guarding against this loss but this should not be at all cost: “I don’t mind things getting lost as long as they are remembered.” It is from this position that Gaylene also goes onto say, “I do believe in preserving traditions, I believe in at least us beginning to understand what they are, what they mean and where they come from and what they hold.”
If as Gould say the meaning of the word culture is ‘to grow’ then it is not difficult to see that the artist has a role to play in encouraging us to change and adapt but remain aware of what from our past is valuable.
