Every town, every family has griots attached to it. You don't become a griot, you are born into this group of poets, artists and performers and technically you can never leave it. Salif Keita is apparently from this caste. The onus is therefore on the political group to provide financial assistance for further study to promising members of the intellectual caste. Other castes are those who work with gold, those who fish, who build, farm and so forth.
Tuition happens within families.
The poet teaches his son, the judge teaches his, the goldsmith his, et cetera. We are the Guardians of Memory, say the griots. If we put words on paper we burn living memory. We live by the daily bread of the word. We get paid when we perform at celebrations, ceremonies, births, deaths.