Le Djeli
Soundiata, l'empereur mandingue, a dit à Kourou kan Fouca "Malinké évitez de faire pleurer les djelis, griots ou djelis soyez les yeux, les oreilles et la bouche du mandé". Le djeli (Le sang) est par extrapolation le "nyamakala", celui qui n'a pas de totem ou d'interdit, il est un corps social tout particulier. Il est adulé parce que proche du pouvoir. Il est craint parce qu'il n'a pas d'interdits (Le nyama), et il est le seul à pouvoir et devoir dire ce que pense le peuple, et ce que doit faire le roi.
Il est le représentant d'un peuple qui ne peut rien dire. Il est enfin écouté parce qu'il connaît l'histoire et l'arbre généalogique de toutes les familles, et il peut à tout moment étaler leur gloire et leurs heures sombres sur la place publique.
Le djeli est recherché parce qu'il est prolixe, qu'il maîtrise à souhait le verbe auquel il a le don de tordre le cou pour mieux moraliser, pour faire rire, pleurer ou rappeler à la conscience collective sa mission de défense de l'intégrité territoriale et son devoir de consolidation de l'unité et de la parenté. Le djeli parce qu'exempté d'interdits a le droit et souvent le devoir de mensonge, pour résoudre des liens d'amitié, de parenté ou même le mariage, car, dit-on, le bon Dieu lui même tolèrerait le mensonge en pareille circonstance. Le djeli est donc à ce titre un médiateur et un animateur social. N'est donc pas djeli qui veut l'être. On naît djeli et on meurt djeli. On est djeli de père en fils et de grand-père à père, d'arrière grand-père à grand-père.
Le djeli a donc par essence une fonction sociale acquise et qui ne peut faire l'objet d'une adaptation ou adoption. Il est le lien indissociable entre l'être et l'esprit, entre l'homme et son histoire, entre la société et son sang vivificateur. Le djeli n'est pas oisif ni profiteur, c'est un homme qui travaille et consacre une partie de son temps aux taches sociales qui lui sont consacrées. Il peut être cultivateur, cordonnier, voire guerrier, comme les "Ton Ta Djons" qui portent le carquois derrière le chef de guerre. Il harangue les troupes, distribue les flèches, et guerroie comme les autres. Le Djeli est un miroir, et la mémoire du peuple.

L'artiste
Le djeli se démarque du commun des mortels par la parole et aussi par son instrument, qui est le support de son message (tam-tam, n'goni, kora, flûte, tambour...). Il apprend à jouer cet instrument dés son plus jeune âge auprès de ses parents. Il finit par l'apprivoiser, le dompter afin qu'il devienne un compagnon fidèle et inséparable, un confident... Le djeli devient donc musicien. A l'occasion, il chante, vante les mérites du chef du roi, du prince, du peuple, évoque le passé, rappelle les gloires, les hauts faits... C'est un musicien qu'on sollicite très souvent pour les événements heureux et malheureux. Le djeli est par essence un artiste, il possède l'art du parler, du verbe, l'art de jouer et de chanter.
Dans la société traditionnelle, le djeli n'avait pas de rétribution fixe. Il était ainsi que sa famille à la charge du roi, du chef, qui est son noble, son maître et son logeur, c'est à dire son Diatigui. Chaque grande famille de guerriers ou de nobles avait son djeli. Le djeli familial était un confident, un relais entre les générations. C'est lui qui enseignait aux différents groupes d'enfants leur histoire, et l'histoire de leurs ancêtres.

On dit chez nous qu'une famille sans djeli est comme un arbre sans feuilles et un griot sans famille d'attache est comme un orphelin.
Le djeli est fier d'être djeli et le diatigui fier d'être le diatigui de son djeli, les deux sont indissociables, inséparables, et l'un ne vaut rien sans l'autre. Le djeli est repérable par son nom de famille : Kouyaté, Diabaté, Dramé, Niakaté, Soumano, Koita, Soumano, Danté...
Il y a des djelis dans toutes les ethnies subsahariennes jusqu'à la lisière de l'Afrique Centrale. Les djelis ne se marient qu'entre eux afin de mieux garder le secret de leur savoir et de leur connaissance et pour mieux le transmettre. Le Djelya est une société secrète, un sacerdoce dont les seuls membres ont accès aux valeurs des cultes. Le secret ne doit donc pas transpirer, c'est pourquoi les djelis ont évité au cours des siècles de se marier en dehors de leur cercle culturel.

Le djeli moderne
Le djeli n'est pas un mendiant, un quémandeur d'aumône et de charité sociale. Le djeli est un homme accompli avec une mission sociale propre et qui ne peut être exercée que par lui en raison de l'immensité de son savoir et de sa culture, de sa maîtrise de l'histoire et des hommes.
Le djeli ne demandait jamais à son chef guerrier ni à son diatigui à manger ou à boire, ni à loger ou à s'habiller. La société connaît elle-même ses devoirs et ses obligations vis à vis du djeli, et lui apporte spontanément tout ce dont il peut avoir besoin, car la mission du djeli est permanente et spécifique, et sa fonction est bénévole, volontaire, volontariste et désintéressée. Mais depuis la fin des trocs, depuis que l'école des blancs a permis aux hommes de partager les mêmes valeurs intellectuelles, les barrières sociales ont été suffisamment éliminées pour laisser la place à une égalité parfaite entre les ethnies.
Et depuis le djelya a perdu de sons sens, de sa valeur, et de sa fonction sociale. Le djeli est désormais celui qui crie plus qu'il ne parle, ce mendiant qui vit de la parole, qui essaie de broder l'histoire généalogique d'une famille sans rien connaître de son djatigui, sans savoir qui furent ses ancêtres et de ce qu'ils firent...

Le djeli n'est plus ce nom de famille qui faisait frémir les hommes de par la puissance de son verbe, le djeli moderne, c'est le griot au sens français du terme et avec toute sa connotation péjorative.
Aujourd'hui, tous ceux qui chantent ou qui jouent un instrument de musique sont considérés à tort comme des griots, mais il faut se départir de l'image de ce djeli des temps modernes qui arpente les rues en grand boubou brodé en quête de baptêmes ou de mariages pour chercher sa pitance.
Le griot djeli au Mali reste et demeure un rempart, une forteresse que les vicissitudes du temps ne réussiront jamais à ébranler. Le djeli au Mali trouve sa bouée de sauvetage dans les racines de notre culture et c'est ce qui doit faire sa force avant tout.

The griot or the djeli
From the Spanish "criardo" (town crier) the griot is, etymologically a messenger, the one who brings news, good and bad : weddings, christenings, celebrations, meetings, assemblies, deaths, wars.
He is also the troubadour, who with his tam-tam under his arm, takes messages from village to village, neighbourhood to neighbourhood. This criardo is found in sub Saharan Africa or the deep savannah country where he replaces the radio, telephone and television. He's the symbol of an oral culture, where the spoken word communicates all and nothing is written. In Mali we prefer to speak of the djeli, meaning literally "blood" : the griot man or woman is the depository of tradition and collective memory, the encyclopaedia of a people's history, the transmitter of the traditions and customs, in short, he is to society what the blood is to the body. The djeli, the blood.

The Djeli
The Mandingo emperor Soundiata once said to Kouroukan Fouca: "Malinké, do not make the djelis cry , djelis or griots! Be the eyes, ears and mouth of the Mandé Empire." The djeli (blood) is by extension the "nyamakala", he has no totem and nor interdiction, a very special element of society. He is adored because he is close to power, and feared, because free of interdictions, he is the only one who can and must say what the people think, and what the king should do. Above all people isten to him because he knows the history and genealogy of every family, and may at any time declaim either their glory or their murky past in public.
The djeli is in demand because he is a master of words, twisting them anyway he likes, aIl the better to preach, to make people laugh or cry, and remind them of their collective conscience, So that they might defend their territory, strengthen their unity and their family. The djeli, to whom aIl is permitted, has the right and often the duty to lie, to clarify links of friendship, parenthood and even marriage, for, it is said, even God himself can accept a lie in such circumstances, as such, a djeli has the role of arbiter and counsellor. Not everyone can be a djeli : you are born djeli and you die djeli, djeli from father to son, grandfather to father, great-grandfather to grandfather. The djeli has an acquired social function which may be neither adapted nor adopted; he is the indissociable link between being and spirit, between man and history, between society and its life-giving blood. Neither a man of leisure nor a profiteer, the djeli works and devotes part of his time to the social tasks entrusted to him. He can be a farmer, shoemaker or even a soldier, like the "Ton Ta Djons" carriers of the chieftain's quivers, rousing the troops, distributing arrows and battling with the rest. The djeli is a mirror, and the memory of the people.

The artist
The djeli distinguish himself from the common mortal, through his words and his instrument, which is the Support of his message (n'goni, kora, flute, drums...). He is taught to play at an early age by his parents, and eventually masters the instrument, which becomes his loyal and inseparable companion.
The djeli thus becomes a musician, he sings, extols the virtues of king, prince and people, evokes history, recalls past glories and great deeds... as such, he is often in great demand at occasions both happy and sad. In essence he's a master of the art of speaking, singing and playing. In traditional society, djelis received no fixed payment, his family being part of the entourage of the king or chief, his master and his landlord, his "diatigui". Every great family of warriors or nobles had their djeli. The family djeli was someone to confide in, a link between generations. He taught the children their history, and the history of their ancestors. We say that a family without a djeli is like a tree without leaves, and a griot without such a family is an orphan. The djeli is proud to be a djeli, and the diatigui proud to be his djeli's diatigui, they are inseparable, worth nothing without each other.
The djeli is recognisable by his surname : Kouyaté, Diabaté, Drame, Niakaté, Soumano, Koïta, Soumano, Dante ...
Djelis abound throughout the Sub-Sahara, as far as the limits of Central Africa. They marry among themselves, the better way to preserve and transmit the secrets of their knowledge. The Djelya is a secret society, a priesthood whose members have access to cult values. The secret must not escape for this reason djelis have avoided marrying outside their circle for centuries.

The modern Djeli
The djeli is no beggar, demanding alms and social charity, he is an accomplished man with a mission in society which he alone may pursue, given the immensity of his knowledge and culture regarding men and their history. He never asks for food, drink, clothing or lodging from his diatigui, society recognises its duties and obligations to the djeli, spontaneously meeting his needs, since his mission is permanent and precise, and his function benevolent, voluntary, committed and disinterested. Since the disappearance of ancient trading practices, and the sharing of intellectual values imposed by the white man's educational system, social barriers have been sufficiently lifted to allow total equality between tribes, and the Djelya has lost its meaning, its value, and its social function. Today the djeli cries out rather than speaks, living from his words atone, trying to spin the yarns family while knowing nothing of his diatigui, nothing of his ancestors and their achievements. The djeli surname no longer makes men tremble with fear; djeli today is griot in the French sense of the word, with all its negative associations. Anyone today who sings or plays an instrument is considered wrongly .as a griot, but we must rid ourselves of this image of the modern djeli, wandering the streets in his embroidered booboo in search of christenings or weddings to pay his way with. The griot -the djeli - remains and must remain a battlement, a fortress immune to the attacks of time. The djeli of Mali finds his salvation in the roots of our culture, which is his strength.