Griot

West Africans did not write their history down. They kept their own histories in their own languages, orally in the form of stories.
Imagine relying on someone else's memory to hold your peoples history. In many parts of West Africa this job is carried out by the griot. Griots were the advisors, messengers, genealogists, and praise singers, as well as historians. Today they still carry West African culture and appear on stage, TV, radio and recording CD's.

There are web logs that certainly fill this role today. A keeper of history, a storyteller, interpreter, analyst, preserver and documenter of our culture. Many web logs are strictly personal or strictly political or have some particular focus. But, there are some journals that are all that and also record our contemporary attitudes and social conditions.
I've added a new link to my favorite Things. Monica Roberts is the TransGriot. Her blog is brilliant, funny and diverse as seen through the eyes on a Black Transgendered female. Monica's subjects range from fencing to the Miss Continental Beauty Contest. She is currently doing a series of posts on Trans and non-Trans women she admires. It is a phenomenal web log by a phenomenal woman.