Memory, History, Identity, and a Good Life

Keita: Heritage of the Griot is Burkina Fasoan film about Griots. It highlights the impact of the Griots on West African society. It tells the story of the epic of Sundjata. Sundjata is a Malian prince who founded the Malian empire. A Griot named Djéliba Kouyaté tells to a 13 year old boy called Mabo Keita the meaning and significance of his name and his ancestors. In the film we see a clash between traditional and modern education. Mabo Keita is captivated by Djéliba’s story that ultimately has adverse impact in Mabo’s education and daily lives. At one point Mabo was so obsessed with Djéliba’s story that he would even skip his lunch and dinner (Keita Film Notes & Viewing Guide).

One interesting question that arises from this movie is whether knowing an individual’s past is important for someone who is seeking to succeed in the future. I opine that an individual’s education is a lot more important than knowing his/her centuries old family history. Education is not only limited to the basic teaching of language mathematics, sciences, etc it is also composed of teaching an individual the importance of the cultural as well as world history. The main argument that I am trying to get to is that knowing ones history or his centuries old ancestors’ story would not play that much of an important role in trying to find the meaning of living a good life when it is compare to the educational benefits. Family history includes a vast number of events and this leads to the laws of probability dictating that the chances of them happening in the future is very miniscule if not completely impossible.

If anything from family history matters at all, then it should be something that happened in the past three to four generations. This is because the circumstances are a lot similar to the circumstances of the present time. Furthermore, the event should be one where decisions of one person had big impact on his family and its future. This would help the child understand problem solving and as he sees real life examples of decision making, he could analyze the events and could use it if he faces an analogous situation. Besides, from this movie it seems that Mabo’s ancestor, Sundjata, was destined to be a dominating and successful ruler which he eventually did become (Keita Film Notes & Viewing Guide). But every individual does not have that much of a successful and happy past. The story of one’s ancestor is not supposed to make, in any way, make someone feel that a person is in any way less capable of becoming as much, if not more, successful than a person whose centuries old ancestors were immensely successful.

Although family history can be important, it should not be valued above education. Education is the primary tool for a child to succeed in his/her future as well as holding up any particular nation’s future well-being. Things like family history act as extra supplements to a child’s knowledge bank. If family history is to be dispersed, it should be dispersed during a time when a child or any other individual of any age group is not engaged in any other activities that is of a lot more significant.

Works Cited:

"Keita: Film Notes." Keita: Film Notes. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.

"Academic Video Store." Directed by Dani Kouyaté. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.