One of my friends invited me to her cousin's wedding celebration. I did not see the wedding ceremony as it had taken place the week prior. Both sides of the wedding party have family abroad and so celebrations were held on two different weekends.
A griot is "a member of a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa."
Griots will be invited to weddings, baby namings and other celebrations where they will play music and sing about the family's history and any guest when given a small donation. If guests want to honor one particular person they will hand them money to give to the griot (as I'm doing in the video) and the griot will then sing about that person.
Griots can also show up unannounced to events. This isn't as common at large private events such as this wedding, but at baby namings I've been to in Basse and the villages, griots will come to any celebration that they've heard of to play and ask for money. You are not obligated to give them anything, though it's very common to give them something small, five or ten dalasi is appropriate.
