Spoken-word poets as griots of Africa’s cultural heritage
The tradition of rendering what is today known as the spoken word poetry to a live audience is an age-long feature of Africa’s traditional poems. Verbalization of poems in the form of songs, chants, praises, incantations, et cetera is characteristic of African traditional poetry. However, the emergence of the print media and subsequent preference for written literature had relegated this to an obscure background until recent developments in literature, technology and communication triggered its phenomenal re-emergence.
