Word of the Day

: September 10, 2025

griot

noun GREE-oh

What It Means

The term griot refers to any of a class of musician-entertainers of western Africa whose performances include tribal histories and genealogies. The term is also used broadly to refer to a storyteller.

// Tracing her family lineage back to West African griots inspired the singer to focus on storytelling through her music.

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griot in Context

“Music is both the subject and mechanism of Sinners, which opens with a voiceover history of how some musicians, dating back to the West African griots, have been seen as conduits between this world and the one beyond.” — Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 22 Apr. 2025

Did You Know?

In many West African countries, the role of cultural guardian is maintained, as it has been for centuries, by griots. Griot—a borrowing from French—refers to an oral historian, musician, storyteller, and sometimes praise singer. (Griots are called by other names as well: jeli or jali in Mande and gewel in Wolof, for example). Griots preserve the genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions of their tribes. Among the instruments traditionally played by griots are two lutes: the long-necked, 21-string kora, and the khalam, thought by some to be the ancestor of the banjo.