jeli

plural jelis

1. A member of the hereditary caste of griots among the Mandé peoples, whose social roles include transmitting their people's oral traditions and playing traditional music (jeliya).

   Jeliya (the art of the jeli) goes back to the thirteenth-century origins of the Mali empire, although the institution of the griot in West Africa probably stems from the earlier Ghana empire (also known as Wagadu), which declined in the late eleventh century.

   2000, Eric Charry, Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 3

   Synonyms: griot