• Used to entertain, teach lessons, share history, and pass on traditions.

• Storytellers use voice, hand movements, facial expressions, and sometimes music.

• One of the oldest ways people communicated.

This is a famous West African oral epic that tells the story of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire in the 13th century. It's a blend of history, legend, and moral lessons, traditionally passed down through griots. West African oral historians and musicians.

Famous Oral Storyteller: Djéli Mamadou Kouyaté

He is a well-known griot who performed and preserved the Epic of Sundiata. His storytelling uses spoken word, music, rhythm, and memory which is all core elements of oral tradition. Kouyaté's version was later transcribed by Guinean author Djibril Tamsir Niane, but the content remained rooted in oral performance.

• Oral storytelling is the oldest way humans shared knowledge before writing existed.

• Every culture in the world has its own storytelling tradition.

• Storytellers often used songs, rhythm, repetition, and gestures to make stories memorable.

• Stories were not fixed where each storyteller could change details to suit the audience.

• Oral stories helped preserve history, culture, morals, and traditions.

• Types of oral stories include myths, legends, folktales, fables, and epics.

• In Africa, storytellers called griots were like living history books.

• Famous works like Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were first told orally.

1. Oldest form of storytelling – Oral storytelling existed long before writing; it dates back to prehistoric times.

2. Universal practice – Found in all cultures worldwide (e.g., African griots, Aboriginal Dreamtime, Native American myths, Malay penglipur lara).

3. Purpose-driven – It served to:

   • Educate (teach morals, skills, survival)

   • Preserve culture and history

   • Entertain communities

   • Unite people through shared identity

   • Explain natural and spiritual phenomena

4. Performance-based – Relies on voice, tone, rhythm, gestures, facial expressions, and audience interaction.

5. Memory and repetition – Stories are passed down through memorization, repetition, and patterns (e.g., recurring phrases, songs).

6. Dynamic and flexible – Stories change over time depending on the storyteller, audience, and cultural context.

7. Carriers of tradition – Often told by elders, shamans, priests, griots, or bards who acted as community knowledge keepers.

8. Precursor to written literature – Many written epics (like The Iliad, Mahabharata, Beowulf) were first oral stories before being recorded.

9. Forms of oral storytelling – Includes myths, folktales, legends, fables, proverbs, riddles, chants, and ballads.

10. Modern relevance – Oral storytelling still exists today through theatre, spoken word poetry, podcasts, radio dramas, and cultural festivals.

• Use chanting, singing, and dancing to share legends and geneology.

Ireland Seanchaí Storytelling

• Recite poems to tell myth and their local history.

Alaskan Native Storytelling

• Use a lot of gestures, usually with audience involvement.

2. Where It Flourished?

☆ Everywhere

》 Oral storytelling is a human universal and not tied to one single place.

☆ Around the Fire

》 The first "theatres" were campfires, communal huts and village gathering places.

☆ Key Early Cultures

》 It was the foundation of all ancient socities including

• African Griots (West Africa)

•Aboriginal " Dreamtime" storytellers (Australia)

Celtic Bards (Europe)

• Native American Elders (The Americas)

•Sanskrit Vedic Reciters (India)

3. How it was Preserved and Shared?

☆ Stories were not written down byt memorized and stored in the mind.

☆ Storytellers used specific tools to remember vast histories:

》 Rhythm and Rhyme

• Making words musical to remember them.

》 Repetition

• Key phrases and choruses were repeated.

》 Formulaic Patterns

• Standard description for characters or settings

• e.g., " swift-footed Achippes, " "wine-dark sea".

》Apprenticeship

• Knowledge was passed from master storytellers to apprentices over many years.

4. Why it Was Vital

☆ A Living Library

• It served as the primary databses for a cultute's:

》 History and Genealogy (who we are and where we came from)

》 Law and Values (how to behave)

》 Spiritual Beliefs (myths, creation stories)

》 Practical Knowledge (how to hunt, navigate, heal)

☆ Social Glue

• Strengthened community bonds and shared identity

☆ Pure Entertainment

• Provided escape, excitement and wonder.

5. The Transition to Text

☆ The Great Change

• The invention of writing systems like (Cuneiform in Mesopotamia ~3200 BCE) began to change how stories were kept.

☆ Not a Replacement

• Oral and written traditions existed side-by-side for centuries.

☆ Frozen in Time

• Many famous ancient texts like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey (Greece) and the Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia) were first composed and shared orally for generations before being written down.

6. Its Legacy Today

☆ It Never Died

》 Oral storytelling is not just ancient story. It continues today in:

• Bedtime stories told to children

• Spoken word poetry and rap bagtles.

• Anecdotes shared among friends

• Traditional cultural practitioners who keep the old ways alive

• The foundation of all narratives (every book, movie, play and TV show we enjoy today has its roots in this ancient oral tradition.)