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Traditional African religion, like most other ancient traditions around the world, were based on oral traditions. These traditions are not religious principles, but a cultural identity that is passed on through stories, myths and tales, from one generation to the next.
Perhaps the most famous repository of oral tradition is the west African griot (named differently in different languages). [31] The griot is a hereditary position and exists in Dyula, Soninke, Fula, Hausa, Songhai, Wolof, Serer, and Mossi societies among many others, although more famously in Mandinka society.
Types of information held by oral repositories includes lineages, oral law, mythology, oral literature and oral poetry (of which oral history is often entwined), folk songs and aural tradition, and traditional knowledge. In many indigenous societies, such as Native American and San, these roles are fulfilled in a general sense by elders.
Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed down from one generation to another through narratives, songs, and festivals. They include beliefs in spirits and higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme being, as well as the veneration of the dead, use of magic, and traditional African medicine.
The African storyteller: stories from African oral traditions, 1990 (with Nongenile Masithathu Zenani) The world and the word: tales and observations from the Xhosa oral tradition, 1992; The tongue is fire: South African storytellers and apartheid, 1996; A dictionary of African mythology: the mythmaker as storyteller, 2000; The poem in the ...
The writing systems of Africa refer to the current and historical practice of writing systems on the African continent, both indigenous and those introduced.In many African societies, history generally used to be recorded orally despite most societies having developed a writing script, leading to them being termed "oral civilisations" in contrast to "literate civilisations".
The traditional beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions. [4] [5] Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and passed down from one generation to another through folk tales, songs, and festivals, [6] [7] include belief in an amount of higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme creator or force, belief ...
African literature is literature from Africa, either oral ("orature") or written in African and Afro-Asiatic languages. Examples of pre-colonial African literature can be traced back to at least the fourth century AD. The best-known is the Kebra Negast, or "Book of Kings" from the 14th century AD. [1]