Risa Tisa broke the internet with her 50-part video series, Who the F Did I Marry?

Her storytelling captivated the audience, but Risa was simply continuing a centuries-old

black tradition.

This is two-minute black history, but you didn't learn in school.

Who de F did I marry kept us all on the edge of our seats? For nearly 10 hours of straight-to-camera storytelling, TikTok user Risa Tisa hooked millions of viewers

and went viral in February for sharing her personal story about love,

betrayal, and truth in a captivating way, carrying on a centuries-old black tradition.

Gryos are storytellers who are highly respected cultural keepers in many West African cultures.

There are also genealogists and histographers because they share and pass down tales usually through the spoken word. It's an inherited role, passed on through generations and a tradition

we've carried and kept for centuries.

With each story passed on, the roots and lessons stay the same, but details relevant to the time are added.

Many of these stories are so detailed that they often take days to recite.

On plantations in the Americas,

griots use songs and satire to mock enslavers,

express their feelings, and preserve memories, even through trauma.

To some historians, spoken word poetry and hip-hop

are diasporic continuations of the griot tradition using storykeeping and telling music

and poetry to document and preserve our culture from grios to front porch conversationalists

to rappers we've long known the power of sharing and preserving our stories, and it's a tradition we must continue.

In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the path.

This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black.

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