By Aria Brent,
AFRO Staff Writer,
abrent@afro.com
Black history is more than oppression and suffering.
Throughout Black history we have seen moments of joy, liberation and innovation. Though traditional, White media may not have accurately recorded Black history, griots have been protecting and telling the stories of African people and their descendants— long before 1619. Keeping Black stories alive has been vital to the development and perseverance of the African American people.
Historically known as poets, musicians and storytellers, griots have upheld the tradition of oral history while also helping it evolve.
“My main medium to tell my story is writing and music.To tell my story as an African American from the south, I prefer communicating and talking amongst people who have similar stories to me as well as people who couldn’t even imagine my story,” stated Charity Hicks, a modern day griot.
Hicks is a writer and musical artist and is often inspired by her past and present experiences as a Black southerner. She is a native of Mississippi. With the magnolia state’s deep history of racism, she values her work in literature and uses it as a way to evangelize the Black experience.
“We didn’t always have it,” said Hicks, speaking on literature and time periods in American history where it was illegal and possibly deadly for a Black people to be caught reading and writing. “We’ve taken advantage of it and used it to document our history. Furthermore, the language we’ve been taught isn’t ours— so we’ve taken the language we were taught and made it our own via AAVE (African American Vernacular English).”
Hicks noted that it is absolutely necessary for Black stories to be told by Black people. It was this attitude that led to her participation in the Hulu series, “The 1619 Project,” a mini-documentary that delves deep into the Black story— a topic much deeper than just slavery.
“We’re in a very precious time in life where people are willing to hear stories from ordinary people. I’m saying ordinary as in you don’t have to be looked at as exceptional from a societal standpoint to be heard now,” said Hicks. “Everyone has a chance to tell their stories and I think that’s important.”
To some the discussion of race relations, slavery and the civil rights movement seem to be turning into taboo subjects that aren’t classroom appropriate.
“We live in a day and age where they’re constantly trying to move our history to the side— they’re removing it from education— which is rude and wrong. History seems to be becoming or made to feel less important,” said Ryan Garry, a multidisciplinary artist from Ridgeland, Miss.
Garry and Hicks are friends and popular artists in the Jackson, Miss. arts scene. Garry co-owns “Vibe Studio,” which was used as a set during the filming of “The 1619 Project.”
While attending Jackson State University both Garry and Hicks were a part of a performance based arts collective focused on carrying on the traditions of West African griots. Through music, spoken word and visual art,Outspoken Arts Collective is maintaining Black history, all the while becoming a part of it.
Using innovative technology, mixed with traditions of old, new ways to preserve and capture history have appeared. Whether it’s a still photo or a video, the visual capturing of Black stories and Black people has allowed us to remember just how far removed some events aren’t.
Today’s modern day griots are on social media. In the age of the Metaverse, stories that were once considered boring have become newsworthy once again as algorithms allow information to reach a target audience. In addition to this, social media has allowed for events to be captured and shared in real time via livestreams. This has let the Black community document our successes and even share tragedies as they happen. It’s helped us tell our truth.
Hicks said “sankofa” is key to her work as a griot.
Sankofa is a Ghanaian symbol that represents the belief that “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind, ” according to the Carter G.Woodson Center for Interracial Education at Berea College in Berea, Ky. By nature, the work of the griot is intertwined with the idea of sankofa and returning to your roots.
“It’s vital that we tell the narratives,” said Hicks. “If we don’t tell it, it gets watered down, twisted and told in a version that’s not factual or worse— they don’t get told at all.”