It's touching isn't it that those poor slaves, snatched from their homes, crammed together in the holds of slave ships, dying like flies and riddled with disease, whipped, abused and ill-treated on arrival, managed somehow to retain their African culture, music and dignity. The black Afro-Americans of today seen on TV always make my husband exclaim "But they're so African!" He isn't referring to their appearance but to their mannerisms and way of speaking, singing and dancing. I can see it too.

There are some videos on Youtube of griots in Cote d'Ivoire, not in Abidjan which is more europeanised, but in the villages. They don't just sing, they dance superbly and play instruments such as cora, djembe, balofon and those gourds filled with small stones and encased in a net for shaking. They also wear traditional costumes, sometimes representing an animal, and paint their faces white in patterns. When my husband first saw the dancers, Straw Bear, hobby horses and so on at various Morris dance events, he remarked how similar to griots the people were.

One can take an African out of Africa, but one can't take Africa out of him!