Proverbs are very significant in traditional africa, hence the saying. It has been built on stories and its practices continue to be passed on through a strong oral tradition. It has been said that no one knows how the drum came into being or how the first drum looked or sounded. Wendi oneal, cultural organizer and daughter of mr. Oral tradition and african theatre by mineke schipper the theatre is always a mirror of human existence, and theatrical expression is always linked to a specific time and place and culture. Chinyowa 2000 argues that there is a pedagogical african storytelling tradition which has its own distinct significance and importance within the african theatre and performance industry.
The importance of oral traditions in the caribbean. The answer is africans taught oral tradition to teach the listener important traditional values and morals pertaining to how to live life. Song as oral tradition in west africa the british library. They were carried over from generation to generation, and today they have been written down to.
Oral tradition is important in west africa because modern writers add to the oral legacy some have turned oral traditions to novels. A narrator does not generally hold singular authority over a story. Oral tradition stories are told by word of mouth, riddles, storytelling, and songs. Oral tradition as a source for african history has been subject to amount of. African literature african literature oral traditions and the written word. African literature african literature the influence of oral traditions on modern writers. Oneal, makes this important distinction when teaching the story circle process. Ancient egyptian scribes, early hausa and swahili copyists and memorizers, and contemporary writers of popular novellas have been the obvious and crucial transitional figures in the movement.
The answer leads in many unexpected and often fascinating directions. Oral tradition and indigenous knowledge written documents are very important sources of history. Junebug productions work has always revolved around storytelling. African history, eurocentric view, african historians, oral tradition.
This is possible because of nature of transmission itself. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses. Unlike most euroasian civilizations, african societies favored oral tradition and few possessed written languages. The use of oral tradition is a distinctive and essential element in many fields of african studies. Most african societies place great worth in oral tradition because it is a primary means of conveying culture. Combined with oral tradition and dance, a visual art form is created for the message being communicated. The skills for survival such as hunting, building houses, making clothes. This is in addition to delimiting different kinds of. What is a griot and why were they so inportant in west africa.
Historiography and methods of african history african. Oral tradition does not maintain the same value of the oral history. Sep 15, 2016 oral traditions have thus been successfully employed to reconstruct the history of many postcolonial societies in africa. The oral tradition, which evolved to include written literature, allows the. In the next unit there are some examples of stories from all over south africa and from different cultures living in the country. The oral based linguistic past of africa remains promising and problematic in documenting africa s precolonial past, as many.
This helps people retain what they learn and generates individuals who are capable of continuing these oral traditions. For example, storytelling is an oral tradition, but reading the same story in. In conclusion, oral traditions are very important in african culture as well as other cultures around the world and the use of written language in passing oral traditions has been helpful in bringing forgotten histories back into the minds of its people. The authors included in the second and third parts of the volume explore african oral literature from another angle. Importance of the oral tradition before the gospels were composed, jesus first followers sustained his memory by sharing stories of his life, death and teachings.
African multiplied investigations on investigations, and were able to find evidence verifying the thesis of the oral tradition as one of the sources. The training systems of africans such as the traditional schools did exist, but most. What is the significance of oral traditions in the study. The importance of oral traditions in african history bartleby. Existing independently of writing for centuries yet interwoven with such technologies to the present day is a wide variety of oral traditions passed down from generation to generation through live performance, and widely. They were the chroniclers of the tradition and entertainers as well. In west africa, the word griot is used to describe an expert in the oral tradition. Technologies such as writing and printing play a vital role in transmitting. This is due in part to the areas origin in colonialism and slavery, which brought to the region various ethnic groups, each with their own cultures and traditions. Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another. At times, african oral performances are regarded as simply quasidramatic phenomena.
Oral tradition, history, historical writing, historian of education, implications. The most important musical instrument of africa is the drum. The importance of oral tradition will be discussed next followed by a conclusion where it will be determined whether oral tradition has a future or not. Storytellers in the african oral tradition do what storytellers in all cultures and in all times have done. The story circle process was created by members of free southern theater fst, junebugs predecessor, as a way to better engage with audiences following performances. Oral tradition as a reliable source of historical writing citeseerx.
Oral tradition remains a part of cultural awareness and is of great historical value in parts of the world where this continues to be the case so that the past remains alive in the minds of present and future people. It cannot be changed although the narrator might embellish it. By bernice bessey oral literature is a spoken word that has been transmitted from generation to generation. Oral tradition is the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next orally by speaking. For the african people, oral tradition is linked to their way of life. Since time immemorial the indigenous communities in kenya lived by knowledge that was passed to them through their oral tradition. The african continent experienced its own form of training and learning before it was colonized and even before the arrival of the missionaries. Oral and written storytelling traditions have had a parallel development, and in many ways they have influenced each other. Oral tradition and indigenous knowledge south african. The significance of oral tradition is due to the stories holding so much information and knowledge. In most ancient societies including those of africa, legacies, culture and traditions were passed from one generation to other by this oral tradition.
Jan vansinas seminal theoretical work, oral tradition. Why is the oral tradition of africa not accepted as a source of historical information while iliad and odyssey are accepted in greek. They were a verbal artist of the mande people they were etertainers that sang songs and riceted poems they were known to spealk for hours. Oral traditions as sources oxford research encyclopedia. Encarta 2009 a proverb is a short sentence usually, usually known by many people, stating something commonly experienced or giving advice. An oral tradition is a practice by which culture is handed down through oral means rather than through written means. Africanamerican history and the oral tradition darwin t. Thus in order to make oral tradition reliable as a valuable source of. Stories and oral histories documented the past, and were handed down from generation to generation. Newton, who was a distinguished british historian in the early 20th century, believed that there was no african history because most of the african society was illiterate before the european intrusion. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and. Oral tradition benefits transmission of cultural values and firsthand historical events in a way that makes listeners more active participants in receiving information. If the afrocentric version of history is true and africans created most societies, why are africa and most africans in such a poor state today.
Oral literature encompasses fables, folktales, legends myths and proverbs. African literature the influence of oral traditions on. Brunvand sees folklore as comprising the unrecorded traditions of. This being a matter of fact, the question is in which wavs playwrights use the rich oral material. Storytellers also provided theatrical performances to entertain the community. This article offers the text of remarks given by professor turner on march. Orality has been an important method of selfunderstanding, creative relationships and. African literature oral traditions and the written word. So far in the text, we tried to show the wealths of oral tradition, its importance for the childs education, and at last its limits. Oral tradition is nonwritten history, it is spoken word only.
Oral tradition, apart from being a source and resource for research on the african past, has a long history of its own in the historiography of the continent. Oral tradition is an important resource of history in africa history of our ancestors and the society they lived in was usually remembered by people and kept alive by word of mouth. In the process of doing so, they distill the essences of human experiences, shaping them into memorable, easily retrievable images of broad applicability with an. The importance of song in africa oral literature aucccom. Oral tradition, civic education, africa, literature. Pdf african literature from the oral tradition to current trends. Archaeology and oral traditionsa case for zimbabwe.
The nuances evident in distinct versions of a specific history represent a broader understanding of the events and the various ways people have internalized them. Changes in societies generally lead to new forms of dramatic expression. The fifth section is devoted to essays that present innovative sources and methods for african historical research. In todays lesson, well explore the oral and written traditions of africa during the timeframe of about 500 to 1800 ce. The importance of oral tradition in african history free. Aug, 20 the term oral tradition will be defined first, followed by a brief description of the bantu people.
Pdf relevance of african oral philosophy destin feutseu. The history and importance of oral documentation and storytelling. Although the tradition is not unique to africans, it is wellestablished as a part of black culture. Focusing on sung poetry song in particular, she shows how oral traditions endure from generation to generation in their own right, on local and global stages, and as live and recorded performance into the 21 st century. The messages may be passed down through speech or song and may take the form of folktales and fables, epic histories and narrations, proverbs or sayings, and songs. Oral tradition usually has existed because of a lack of an. Oral traditions as sources oxford research encyclopedia of. Oral traditions section of the central oregon community college web site is a good place to learn about the importance of the oral traditions in african culture. In african religion, it is the guiding principle in which to make sense of the world. Oral traditions make it possible for a society to pass knowledge across generations. Storytellers were crucial to the african community because they preserved the history. Email citation examines the importance of oral tradition as a historical source and explores pertinent issues in the development of yoruba, christian missions, and west african historiographies. What is to be kept in mind is that, in traditional africa the oral tradition was closely linked to the childs education. Technologies such as writing and printing play a vital role in transmitting history, thought and creativity, and such technologies have a long history in west africa.
Letters, diaries, and even old shopping lists can tell us a lot about how people lived, what they thought and how they felt about what happened around them. Oral traditions and african history oral tradition as a source for african history has been subject to a certain amount of controversy in recent decades. Asked in history of africa, africanamerican history. Examples of traditional literature are divination text, drum language, poem, appellation, tales, songs, riddles, proverbs, myths and legends. This is due in part to the areas origin in colonialism and slavery, which brought to the region various ethnic. Examines the importance of oral tradition as a historical source and explores pertinent issues in the development of yoruba, christian missions, and west african historiographies. Themes in the literary traditions of contemporary africa are worked out frequently within the strictures laid down by the imported religions christianity and islam and within the struggle between traditional and modern, between rural and newly urban, between genders, and between generations. The triune and important attributes of myths are that they are cultural. Abstract a lot has been said about the slow death of the oral tradition aspect of indigenous communication. Oral traditions have thus been successfully employed to reconstruct the history of many postcolonial societies in africa. To prove that oral tradition and oral sources are the same and can be used interchangeably, e.
The advantage of oral tradition is and was that it maintained tradition when there was no other means to do so, i do not think that there are advantages or disadvantages of oral tradition. The paper argues that african oral literature has not received the. Often, oral histories must be validated by the group. There is a rich tradition throughout africa of oral storytelling. In the caribbean, oral traditions are a common element in cultures throughout the region. Since the oral traditions of africa are so plentiful, well start with them. Oral tradition is, therefore, a collective enterprise.
Why was the oral tradition important in africa 2 see answers answer 4. Several authors in this collection remark that the demarcation between education and other domains of. Some of you may have heard or read alex haleys nonfiction account of the manner in which he discovered his ancestry. The african oral tradition paradigm of storytelling as a. The importance of oral tradition is that it helps pass on the. The importance of oral traditions in african history. It forms part of africa s rich cultures that are expressed in diverse ways. A definition oral tradition is certainly not a new concept. The history and importance of oral documentation and.
The fourth section deals with the method most often associated with african historians, that of drawing historical data from oral tradition. These settlements were located on the local granitic hilltops and slopes. As a result of the investigations of oral traditions and field walking in the study area, we have been able to do the following. The steady incursion of foreign media content and values which were once alien to africans but are now being assimilated and exhibited. Since the independence, most african countries have adopted educational systems that are identical to those of the colonial masters, thus rejecting and denying the importance of local and indigenous culture for education ngara 2007. The study of the negritude movement encompasses the historical context, the definition of the concept and its principal authors, ideological. The importance of oral tradition in african history free essays. A study in historical methodology, articulated the major theoretical advances in defence of the use of oral traditions in historical reconstruction. Pdf oral tradition in the african setting is linked to their ways of lives. There are values and skills that are particular to the oral tradition that cannot be learned through writing. Historically, most african societies did not have an. African oral and written traditions african studies. Oral traditions are messages that are transmitted orally from one generation to another. Assess the importance of oral tradition in the caribbean for the development of its civilization from one generation to another.
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