Maarifa enjoys learning about the true history of Africa and it’s people all over the world. Those of us in Britain whose families came here from the 
Caribbean are mostly descendants of West African people. In Africa there is a strong tradition of keeping our amazing history alive by passing on the memories of our great civilisations and people through speech from parents to children. It is called our oral tradition.
 
We also wrote our history in books but there was a time when many 
African societies moved from one area to another to grow crops and find grazing for cattle and other livestock. In those circumstances, it made sense to ensure that we maintained an oral tradition rather than carry a library around with us. Where there were settled communities, every 
village had oral historians called griot and griotte. They would teach the whole village about the history of West Africa and from the children of these villages new griot and griotte would evolve. These villages grew into cities and incredible civilisations, the first on the planet.
 
Later Africa was invaded by people with the evil desire to capture us and take us to the Caribbean islands and the mainland Americas, as a result our oral traditions became even more important not only for those of us who were lost to Africa but for those who remained in Africa and were constantly moving to avoid being stolen from our homeland. 
 
True African history goes back thousands of years before any other 
people were on the planet and it is pioneering, incredible and uplifting!