performance poetry in africa dates to prehistorical times with the creation of hunting poetry, while elegiac and panegyric court poetry were developed extensively throughout the history of the empires of the nile, niger and volta river valleys. one of the best known griot epic poems was created for the founder of the mali empire, the epic of sundiata. in african culture, performance poetry is a part of theatrics, which was present in all aspects of pre-colonial african life and whose theatrical ceremonies had many different functions: political, educative, spiritual and entertainment. poetics were an element of theatrical performances of local oral artists, linguists and historians, accompanied by local instruments of the people such as the kora, the xalam, the mbira and the djembe drum. drumming for accompaniment is not to be confused with performances of the "talking drum", which is a literature of its own, since it is a distinct method of communication that depends on conveying meaning through non-musical grammatical, tonal and rhythmic rules imitating speech. although, they could be included in performances of the griots.