Intro: Willem Smith-Clark, Ezekiel Chabon Randy Barnett Postcolonial African History H-Block December 12th, 2014 Verse 1: After sipping and eating, let's sit by the fire in Benin, and begin to speak with, our families. There was no reading or writing in the time of those who came before them. Thus forced them to tell stories of the glory and the hardship. How the turtle's shell got its hardness, why lightning comes to haunt us. But we see it's only use isn't in education; in truth it's just as much used as art and entertainment. Ghanians have a spoken joking games that they've been playing. Where mockery, disgracing, and other forms of hatred are seen as just another part of everydayness. So, envision a story where the listeners are critical of every single syllable, word choice, different synonyms emitted in the way the orator delivers them. A thought that, the audience better be involved with answers and questions, the best ones have the choruses dancers and sections of people singing orature. Verse 2: Let's develop our perceptions of storytelling. African oral tradition persisting enveloping more than one discipline. Citizens are dancers, musicians, and lyricists. When you're listening, you'll see, the teller my sing a bit. The stories have rhythm often accompanied by instruments. It's a fine line between folktale or song, when they're both spoken and sung. The same focus for some, stories with side of drums. The drum dictates the dancers movements and all. Music and dance are just like peas in a pod. You'd think it's just a beat, but the drum sure can speak. (Back in the day, protruding the music they used to use drums to communicate). Communities would play to imitate human speech. Many voices replayed with drums booming noises. The music and movements were important and used in creating a culture and history, but they'd lose it.