Passage III

An American Griot

[1] When storyteller Mary Carter Smith practices her art and everybody listens. [2] Wearing a brightly colored African dress, a large turban, and bracelets, the seventy-eight-year-old Smith seems to inhabit each of the different characters she describes. [3] Her voice changes with each emotion she wants to evoke. [4] Her gestures fit the pace of the narrative. [5] And though many of the stories are intended to make the audience laugh, Smith is fully aware of the other values of storytelling. [6] Indeed, she identifies strongly with the griots of West Africa—those village storytellers where they use songs, poems, and narration to help preserve and transmit culture and history. [7] Clearly others recognize her as a valuable resource. [8] Smith is the official griot of both the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland; she has served as griot-in-residence at several universities. (35)

Though Smith has been interested in theater since her youth, her recognition of her own talent grew gradually. She worked for thirty years as a teacher and librarian in the field of education in Baltimore public schools. (36) She organized theater groups in her community and took several trips to Africa to study traditional cultures. All along, she was telling stories—everything from social satire to her retelling of “Cinderella” as Cindy Ellie, a poor African American girl whose rags are transformed into magnificent African-style gowns. Over time, she was invited to perform in churches, libraries, and museums.(38)

Smith realized the extent of her gift when her friend Alex Haley who had gathered essential material critical to writing his best-selling novel Roots from a griot in Gambia, began to refer to her as “my American griot,” this was a revelation to Smith. “Hearing that was like a man who has shoed horses all his life being told, ‘You’re a blacksmith!’” she recalls.

Today, Smith’s repertoire is so vast that she could speak consecutively for twelve hours straight without running out of material. It’s unlikely she would ever attempt such a feat, but if she did, there would be no dull moments.