Griot

By Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell

I googled the word "Griot" and found a wonderful article from "Research/Penn State" written by Joanna Lott (May 2002). She writes of the work of Dr. Thomas A. Hale, head of the French Department at Penn State University. Dr. Hale has written a book titled, "Griots and Griottes". It is said that "Griots hold the memory of West Africa." I claim none of the magnificent attributes that are associated with Griots/Griottes, but the presidential election of 2008 has pushed me to uncover the Griot within me, shaped by my 75 years as an American of African descent. It is time for us in the USA to remember our history in ways that can be acknowledged, celebrated and used as a source of hope for this moment.

Some of the responses to the candidacy for President of Senator Barack Obama have prompted me to reach into my memory and recall our national history that should have prepared us for this moment. Unfortunately, our unwillingness to remember our history deprives us of the joy of celebrating how we as a nation have transformed negatives into positives and moved as a nation from what was viewed as impossible to the possible. We have not always understood that doing this is one of the most patriotic tributes we can offer our nation. We are called to live today with an optimistic hope for the future and for those who will live in that future, long after we are gone.

The nomination for President and the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama is, "As American as Apple Pie". Where have we been as a nation, and what are the positives about our nation that are made visible in the candidacy of a man of African descent who possesses sociologically, historically and biologically, much more than "blackness" and "whiteness"?

What do I as a "Black American Griot" remember? 75 years ago in Greensboro, North Carolina, I was born into American racial apartheid. Barack Obama won the North Carolina Democratic Primary and may win North Carolina in the general election. "Back in the day" I remember my parents reading the weekly "Negro" newspapers and sharing with me and my 3 sisters stories that were not found in the daily papers. The one I remember most vividly is their telling us about German prisoners of war detained in Arkansas, who were taken to white-only restaurants and served while black soldiers in uniform had to go to a take out window in the back and eat their food elsewhere. Since that time, General Colin Powell has served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and if elected, a President Barack Obama would become, Commander-in-Chief. I remember the anger produced by the May 17,1954 Supreme Court decision that abolished the concept of Public School, "separate but equal". Some schools were closed, and racially segregated "Academies", were established by some churches and other organizations in response to the decision. Black children (not all) who became the first blacks to attend previously all-white public schools were met with jeers, racist language the appearance of hate-filled faces. Those "Greeters" allowed their learned racial prejudices to deprive them of affirming a great moment in our national history; the transformation of a racially exclusive history and culture into the reality of racial inclusivity. They were witnessing a moment in history that represented the nation at its best and they did not understand that. Barack and Michelle Obama, if they become the nation's first family, will personify in so many ways the belief in and commitment to education that is as American as America can be.

Because I have been involved in the racial unfolding and evolving of our nation, I have an explanation for some of the hesitancy and even resistance by some to the election of Barack Obama. I learned this as I was a spectator as Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball. I remember when the Professional Golf Association(PGA) and the then United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) said "No" to the later possibilities of a Tiger Woods playing in their golf tournaments and the Williams sisters playing in their tennis tournaments. My memories of the acts and actions of excluding blacks from participating in so many activities and places in the USA, prompted me to embrace this explanation: Despite the Pioneers and Pioneering history that envisioned and made possible the USA, strangely enough some persons in 2008 are "fearful of the first black".

There has never been an African American as a presidential nominee of either the Democratic or Republican Party, and of of course no African American President. But my long history as an American patriot who has loved his nation enough to challenge it, brings forth this Griot message from me in October of 2008. I have seen, I have experienced white persons,  and some persons who are not white, who have revealed a "fear of the first black". As a  Pastor of 4 predominantly white United Methodist Churches, a few persons "left" before I arrived, others voted against my coming, because the limitations of their experience and vision, would not allow them to imagine me as their Pastor. But, in time, just as has been true in our national racial history, some who left "returned", and those who first said no, ended up saying "Yes".   

Although different words are used, the demeaning words of distortion and definition that some few people are using today in their efforts to defeat Barack Obama are not unlike the words that some used in their efforts to "defeat" Martin Luther King, Jr. When I remember those words and actions, I am startled that some who are successors to those Martin Luther King-haters of the past, now use comparable words and actions in their efforts to demean Senator Obama. I can only quote Scripture and say of them, "Father forgive them , for they know not what they do".

A West African Griot song contains these words: "You are our eyes, you are our mirror, you are our hands and legs, that we use to walk."  America, in my fumbling way I have sought in these words to be your eyes and your mirror so that all of us might use our hands and legs in 2008 to walk to a place that we have not been before. Our history has shown that when we have "dared to walk", we have not been disappointed in the places where we arrived.