(gentle upbeat string music) - Djeli is a guardian of the word.

History is a verbal.

You have to speak for people to know about something.

(Yacouba singing in foreign language) So, that's why they call us in English, living history books so you can learn everything from us.

- Oral traditions are so important, because really they reflect this ideological understanding of the world, right?

Where knowledge is communal and it's shared and so, it doesn't belong to one person.

So, when people don't come together in those spaces to hear like what would be the equivalent of a Griot, right?

To hear an elder speak or talk, then you lose a lot of those traditions in the process.

- As I started to learn about the Griot tradition and how it's traditionally passed down, I realized I was stepping into a way of like reclaiming this ancestral practice.

- So, Djeli is that to protect the humanity with the word.

(Yacouba singing in foreign language) (gentle string music) My name is Yacouba Sissoko.

I am a Djeli from Mali in West Africa, born into Djeli family from a father and mother.

I'm proud of being Djeli and to be born into a Djeli family.

Some can say "jel-lee" some pronounce "jah-lee" but the Griot is a French word, so they say Griot in French, because they couldn't translate exactly, they just said Griot, which means storyteller, peacemaker.

- The Djeli is probably best understood as a storyteller, an oral historian, a praise singer that travels among tribes.

The term is West African origin, but you'll see it spelled differently.

In parts of West Africa that we're colonized by the French, you will see the term Griot.

So, they're a figure who is ubiquitous in West African society and really throughout Africa.

They can operate in different roles, in different spaces.

So, they had ceremonial roles, they had spiritual roles, they had social roles, and so, you see them, you know, in communal settings like tribal meetings telling stories, or reciting poetry, or playing instruments to entertain people.

At the birth of a new child or at a marriage ceremony when they are reporting to the king, for example, they might be, you know, making a proclamation about, you know, who the next ruler rule be, because in some cases they're believed to have divine insight.

They're really unique in that regard.

because there are not many figures that you see operating in both, like political and sacred and secular spaces.

(singing in foreign language) Similar to a caste system in other cultural contexts, right?

Where if your family was merchants, like you were born into a merchant cast.

So, yeah, it was a class, it was a hereditary position, which didn't necessarily mean that you didn't get training, right?

You still had like, you know, this process of learning the tools of the trade, so to speak, and you had to practice your craft, of course.

- And each noble family supposed to have their Djeli who play kora, and is a very spiritual instrument.

(gentle string music) All the traditional instrument belong to Djeli first.

We have n'goni, we have m'bolon, we have balafon, and the kora.

But kora, and balafon, and n'goni, yes, they are really, really Djeli instrument.

They belong to Djeli.

(gentle upbeat string music) You cannot become a Djeli, you have to be born Djeli, but anybody can do Djeli work.

Anybody can do storytelling like a Djeli.

You can play Djeli instrument like a Djeli.

That's not a problem.

- I really like that song we played together.

We were really vibing well with each other.

(Yacouba chuckling) - Yeah, when I play this, you can.

(gentle string music) Kora represent also human body.

Is a very secret, but also a significant instrument.

But when you play kora, you facing each other, kora face you and the back, the body of a kora, face of the public.

So that mean you have a connection with the kora.

Whatever you think here is goes into your hands and you express yourself with the kora.

Each material element on the kora have a meaning that when you look at the calabash, this cow skin, and this wood came, the Redwood on the kora, they all play in a very important, you know, role in our life.

And I learned the kora from my grandfather, Samakoun Tounkara was a master.

I did everything possible to succeed with the kora playing.

Any instrument, not only kora, you have to have a connection between you and your instrument.

Get to know your instrument then the kora, the instrument would allow you to play any musical style.

Just play this.

(gentle string music) - I started playing the kora two years ago and about six months into my own studying or my own journey with the kora, I realized I needed to sit at the feet of a master.

Yacouba and I connected, and by the time we were like halfway through our first lesson, we realized there was like a reason that we had come together.

He said, "I think, you know, you have found your teacher."

And it felt like there was this beautiful like divine orchestration that was happening between like my ancestors and his ancestors that really brought us together.

(gentle string music) He is coming to this place in the states where he's allowing so many African Americans to heal through spiritualism.

And that was something I didn't have access to prior to learning the kora.

(singer singing in foreign language) - A lot of Djeli traditional music are disappearing.

We have to sing and remind first our elder and remind the younger that we have to keep Djeli tradition.

Don't forget what belong to your family.

They pass that along to you and you're supposed to pass to another generation.

We have to go back to the tradition, not to let the tradition, you know, disappear.

We are gonna play a short song dedicated to Djeli people first.

'cause that's a Djeli introduction song, which mean (Yacouba speaking foreign language) which mean God create Djeli to serve the world, to tell the world history, to unite people, and also to make peace between people.

(upbeat string music) (upbeat string music continues) For me, I wanna go and do cultural exchange.

I want to live with our community in America.

We are not sharing also the history for only our people who, you know, are immigrant, but the Afro-American, we wanna also come and share with them, because many of them don't know the history, African history.

And also, they wanna know where they come from.

If I'm there, they can know that who they are and who are Djeli people.

So that's why I decide to come here, stay here.

- There's always gonna be a need for an elder to preserve the history of a tribe or a community to provide blessings, to stand in that space between the sacred and secular world.

And I think for many folks that's how we envision the Djeli and the Griot.

It's a figure that continues to be important despite the ways in which the role has evolved.

But Yacouba is so important, because he's helping kind of bridge the gap between the old and new, right?

And he basically, is a type of living tradition.

And that's so important for being able to preserve these traditions into the future.

(gentle upbeat string music) (gentle upbeat string music continues)