West African Griot Oral Tradition Institution

Timeline

1. c. 1235–1337Mali imperial court (around Niani) · Mali EmpireAfter Sundiata founded the Mali Empire, griots were given hereditary functions of recording royal genealogies, playing the kora at court ceremonies, and praising the monarch's achievements, forming a system of knowledge transmission parallel to the warrior class (donso).
2. 1431–1440Mande chieftaincies of West Africa · GuineaAs the Mali Empire fragmented into several local polities, griots traveled among the courts, preserving through oral means the political memory of the empire's unified period and the Epic of Sundiata, becoming a key indirect source for later historians reconstructing the history of 14th–15th-century West Africa.
3. c. 1460–1591Gao and Timbuktu · MaliSonghai Empire rulers absorbed Mande traditions; griots continued to serve as ceremonial musicians and historical advisors at the courts of Gao, Timbuktu, and elsewhere, with the oral tradition and Islamic written historiography operating in parallel, jointly shaping the political culture of post-imperial West Africa.