“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 [ˈɡri.oʊ], have been seen as conduits between this world and the one beyond.” — Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 22 Apr. 2025

griot [ˈɡri.oʊ]

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.

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.

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