CHAPTER 14

ORAL TRADITION: A VERITABLE TOOL IN HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION

Dr Frank Amugo, PhD

Introduction

Oral tradition has been adjudged as a useful source for reconstructing the past, especially in societies where writing is recent and even among people who had written records. It is equally known that many historical works, including the most ancient ones, are based on oral sources.

Oral tradition, however has suffered much prejudices concerning its reliability as a source in historical writing, which is unjustifiable. This is so given the fact that, while historians from literate societies have made efforts to distill historical facts, so have many non-literate societies made efforts to preserve their own historical traditions by various means.

Some forms of oral tradition may be subject to high level of distortion, while there are others protected by regulations so strict as to keep possibilities of their alterations minimal. It is now the responsibility of the historian to identify which elements in oral tradition are reliable as sources of data or otherwise, and which ones can provide clues to the location of reliable sources elsewhere. These make realities the work of the historian or researcher working with oral tradition tedious and frustrating. However, caution must be taken not to underplay the usefulness of oral tradition as a veritable tool for historical reconstruction.

This chapter shall examine oral tradition as a source of historical writing, as well as, the various forms in which it exists and will go further to identify the pitfalls inherent in them.

Oral Tradition: Theoretical Explications.

History scholars and practitioners involved in historical reconstruction, in recognition of the pivotal place of oral tradition have offered very useful insights and theoretical explications of oral traditions and its uses as a historical tool.

Jan Vansina was a foremost advocate and the first to provide a firm scholarly footing on the use of oral tradition in his seminal work, “Oral tradition: a study in historical methodology”, published in French in 1961, and in English in 1965. He offered that; oral tradition comprises all oral testimonies concerning the past which are transmitted from one person to another. Vansina (1965) According to him, it equally relates to aspect of material and symbolic culture transmitted informally and unconsciously. In Africa, all aspects of culture and custom have to be considered part of historiography and not consigned to ethnography, anthropology or other disciplines.

Professor E.J. Alagoa one of the Frontline promoters of the use of oral tradition in histonography, sees oral tradition as information about the past which is transmitted orally through a chain, from person to person, in which a transmitter cannot claim to be the originator or the sole/only custodian of the information, neither can claim to be, an eyewitness. Though not an eyewitness, he is a vehicle of an information or evidence which itself is history (Alagoa, 1968).

According to Enemugwem, who worked closely with E.J. Alagoa at the University of Port Harcourt, Oral sources transmit information about the distant past from one person to another. This is essentially applicable where festivals, language, ceremonies, poetry, folktales, proverbs, drumbeats, and music are recognized as the means of preserving the wisdom of the ancestors (Enemugwem, 2003).

The foregoing definitions and thoughts elicit the need for direction of inquiry objectively, into the philosophical and theoretical grounds on which the acceptance and use of oral traditions are based. The efforts of the great scholars cited strengthens the understanding and faith in the validity of oral tradition, as well as, its contribution to the general body of historical thought and practice. There is little doubt that oral tradition provides one route through which African historians can make an original contribution to international scholarship in the field of history. Therefore, oral tradition should be placed in a proper perspective in relations to other traditions of historiography. It is important to note that in African context, oral tradition has clear advantages over other sources in depth and scope regarding the information it can provide over many aspects of the past (Alagoa, 1981).

Oral tradition therefore seems to be the basic form of historical consciousness for societies in the period of their development prior to the development of written culture. At some point in the process of change, some societies were said to have created written records out of the traditions that appeared most significant for them. This would seem to be the case with the Iliad and Odyssey of the Greeks, Aenead of the Romans, the Torah and Bible of the Jews, and the Koran and Hadith of the Arabs, as well as, the various sages and Legends of Europe (Alagoa, 1984).

It has been found that writing alone never succeeds in recording all events that may be significant to a society. Thus, the most sophisticated written cultures of modern world in Europe and North America are moving towards a respect for oral history and the systematic recording of the memories of individuals and groups about the recent past (Thompson, 1978). The concern for oral history as a valid and significant source of the recent past provides some grounds for an understanding of the central place of oral tradition of the more distant past. In most pre-literate societies, oral traditions of the people which were usually preserved in the courts of kings and rulers by special devices were committed into written records with the inception of writing and literacy. Thus, oral tradition serves as a veritable source of reconstruction of histories of pre-literate distant past of most societies.

Forms of Oral Traditions

Oral traditions come in diverse forms but some categorizations have been identified. On a broad sense, oral sources could be grouped in two forms: Oral tradition and Oral history. Oral tradition relates to the oral source in which the informant who gives the account is not the origin of the tradition but only a link in a chain for the process of transmission. The reality is that the oral document is a living historiographical document and not a dead one, like the archival document. Oral history on the other hand, is usually related by the participant or eyewitness of the event concerning the past. In this case the person who participated in the event or activities or who saw them directly transmits and interprets the event or information.

Philips Stevens C. has distinguished four broad forms of oral tradition to enhance the reconstruction of history using oral sources. They are Myth, Popular history, legend, and song, which fall under the generic heading of ‘Folklore’, that in turn is a term so broadly applicable to all expressive aspects of culture:

Myth

A myth is agenerally “held but false belief or idea”. It is a traditional story, especially one that dwells on the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernaturalbeingsorevents. Put differently, it is a symbolic narrative of unknown origin which is traditional in nature, and is associated with religious or supernatural belief (www.britannica.com>topic>myth). Myth has also been described as a traditional or legendary story concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation. Some myths may have factual origins and others are completely fictional. Interestingly, myths are more than just stories but serve a more profound purpose in both ancient and modern cultures. In this vein, they are sacred tales explaining the world and man’s experience; they seek to answer timeless questions and play the role of a compass to each generation (Myths & Heroes, 2005). Many myths play instructive role while acting as a guide to social norms, taking on cultural taboos such as incest, fratricide, and greed (Myths & Heroes, 2005).

The myth has been found to be a veritable oral source because the form and constants of myths are carefully preserved and then serve as inbuilt safeguards against error or lapse of memory in a number of mnemonic (memory assisting devices). Myths have been found to be useful in different forms and nature in historical reconstruction by Psychologists, Anthropologists, folklorists and historians, particularly when carefully and skillfully applied.

Folklore is a literary genre that contains most of the elementfound in myth, especially as it set in the ‘times of the beginnings', the same gods,and heroes may appear in which principals actors may be animals with similar events allied.

Generally, folklores often offer explanations of peculiarities in animaland human behavior and experience and may contain morals and express values worthy of emulation, and most times its recitations may appear to be controlled. Only special persons tell folktales and at appointed times. Inspite of the truths folktale bear, its primary purpose is entertainment. Thus, while myths are privileged information, folklores are public property. The essence of folklore is not in the historical veracity of its details, but in the episodes, strategies and moral lessons they teach. However, folklore is not easily a reliable source for use by the historian in Africa.

Popular History

This form of oral tradition is simply called "tradition" by historians and anthropologists, though inadequately applied as it fails to distinguish it from more structured and formalised traditions. It is a broad and rather "boundriless"or free realm of historical tradition.

Popular History stems in part, from selected elements in myth, legend, and song, and in part from common events. Most importantly, is the fact that it is lacking in restrictions on its use, which govern the other categories or forms, especially the fact that it lacks concrete referents. This makes it extremely malleable and subject to alteration through diffusion, selection, popular opinion, andthe need to provide validating precedents for aspects of changing human experience. Given the fact that it reflects changing values, it is of great utility to the student of social process, but rather confounding to the historian.

However, popular History when subjected to comparative scrutiny could provide useful clues in historiographical research.

Legend

A legend refers to a story about an event that happened in the past, usually involving a heroic action. To qualify as a legend, the story cannot be proven although it might be true (greece.mrdonn.org., 2021). They are oral traditions associated with particular places and often involve culture heroes, witches, ghosts, or some other phenomenon related to that place. They can involve the recent or distant past, but are most important in linking people and the land (Milwaukee Public Museum, 2021).

Legend could serve as veritable source of data for historical reconstruction. Legend as an oral source has some basis in actual fact, either in terms of broad framework or by reference to specific names, events and plans. Legends are associated with personages, events, or places that could be found in other traditions which gives it some authenticity. Moreso, as it deals with real personages and real places like folklore; though it lacks definite proof and can be embellished or exaggerated by the source. However, when legend is compared with the other oral sources, it tends to assist the meticulous historian with his reconstruction work.

Song

Song as form of oral data, includes poetry, epic, chant and other verse forms, which are subject to restrictions of the sort, which govern myth. Songs are record of time whose composers are relatively free to include social criticisms, giving pictures of the actual social conditions of the times. So, a historian using song has the leverage to bring to the historical reconstruction a vitality, an aliveness, that is so often lacking in accounts deriving from conservative sources.

Song may be preserved as myth and usually recited by special persons assigned with that responsibility as to keep record of certain special events, such as, memorable battles, successful hunts, and the accomplishments of important individuals.

Most often, songs suffer mutations as a result of death of royal personages, warrior-heroes and other events that occur in society; they tend to respond to both traditional and modern societal pressures to retain their relevance as sources of data. However, whether recent or old, song can be sources of oral data for the reconstruction of history of societies where writing is relent.

Possible Pitfalls in the Use of Oral Traditional

As much as oral traditional remains a veritable source for historical reconstruction, it has been found to be subject to distortions, which stand as pitfallsthat unwary historians could fall into. Some of such pitfalls are:

Alterations for Political Purposes

Some traditions may have been tailored to validate the claim of an individual or group to a particular status or degree of social recognition. The recognition or position may have been based on the tradition and may not have been invented.

Oral traditions could be altered to perpetuate or give legitimacy to particular political or social position held by individual or families or dynasties in a society. There exists the suspicion that oral tradition could be used as propaganda, deliberately falsified or distorted to serve the interests of present rulers rather than record of the past. There are anxieties that oral traditions and genealogies could be used as charters for present rulers, to perpetuate their positions or stools.

Frailty of Human Memory

Frailty of human memory has been pointed out as possible pitfall in the use of oral traditions. This stems from the fact that primarily orally transmitted information gradually loses details as it goes down the generations from the original actor or witness to the informant or narrator in the present. Alogoa (1984) asserts that the reliability of the central element of oral tradition is, however, ensured by the commitment of the community to integrity and by sanctions imposed by tradition, custom and even by community law. As generations pass, the facts are stored in many people’s memories, more often than not, with each person, perhaps adding fresh in accuracy; and after two or more generations, data become more difficult to determine.

Assertion of Social Equality

In certain instances, oral tradition could be altered to express socially desired feeling of equality with certain other peoples. Popular history especially may be adapted to express socially and politically convenient sentiments of superiority, equality, or even inferiority, and the historian must be aware of actors which can cause such distortions.

Collapsing of Chronology

This is what Smith calls ‘Accordion Effect’ in which old and initial precipitating events could be condensed and collapsed against one another to make older events seem more recent than they actually are. This problem illustrates a factor of distortion, which is common to oral tradition everywhere; the collapsing of chronology in an accordion manner. Generally speaking, earlier events are collapsed more than the recent ones; moreso as it is said that history is accredtionary while the human mind is selective. In most African societies, name and achievements of specific ancestors may be remembered, but over succeeding generations, specific ancestral events tendto blend into the realm of ancestors.

Larger than Life Factor

Hero-stories which is mostly associated with legend, presents another factor of distortion in oral tradition, which is probably universal in making Heroes and events become larger than life. Heroes by definition, already somewhat larger than life but their remembrance tend to make them more so. More often than not, the infusion of Hero tales with magical elements, and the attribution of superhuman powers to the Heroes themselves who might be principal actors seem to be bogus than actual historical personages.

The Effect of Historical Writing

Written documents have been found to be possibly the strongest pitfall in the use of oral traditions for historical reconstruction. The major distortions of oral traditions arise from the tendency to reverence anything written, over and above oral traditions, with the dangerous inclination to regard any written record as authentic and sacrosanct. In this trend, oral traditions could easily be quickly and dramatically altered to conform to written history. In this guise, most modern informants often attest to the veracity of their oral accounts by saying ‘is it not so written?’referring to any locally available document.

Conclusion

While oral traditions remain a veritable tool in historical reconstruction, the user must be patient and cautious to identify the inherent pitfalls discussed in this work. Furthermore, elements in traditions must be cross-checked by working in collaboration and corroborating with other sources such as, archaeological data, results of linguistic methods, such as glotto-chronology, anthropological studies, and written records. Oral traditions when carefully handled as suggested, stands as an indispensable tool for historical reconstruction in Africaand elsewhere.

References

Alagoa, E.J. (1978). ‘Oral Tradition and History in Africa’ Port Harcourt, Kiabara vol. I No. I.

Alagoa, E.J. (1981). “Oral Data as Archives in Africa” Kiabara Vol. 4. No. 2.

Alagoa, E.J. (1981). The Python’s Eye: The past in the present. Text of University of Port Harcourt Inaugural Lecture I.

Alagoa, E.J. (1984). Towards a History of African Histonography. Text of the paper presented at the 30 Annual Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria at University of Nigeria Nsuka, March 26-29, 1984.

Amugo, O.F. (2008), ‘Sources and Methods of Historical Writing’ in Introduction to History and International Studies. An African (1) Perspective (ed) Ndu Life Njoku New Jersey, Goldline Publishing Services, USA.

Enemugwem, J.H. (2003). “The Rhetoric of Oral Historiography” University of Port Harcourt, KiabaraVol, 9 No.I.

Greece.mrdonn.org. (2021). What is a legend? Available at https://greece.mrdonn.org/legends.html (Accessed 28/11/21).

Milwaukee Public Museum (2021). The Role of Oral Tradition. Available at https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-14 (Accessed 28/11/21).

Myths & Heroes. (2005). Myths, Available at https://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths_what.html (Accessed 25/11/21).

Philips, S.Jr. (1978). ‘The Uses of Oral Traditions in the Writing of African History’ TARIKH, Vol. 6, No. 1.

Thompson, P. (1978). The Voice of the Past: Oral History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vansina J. (1965). Oral Tradition- A study in Historical Methodology. Chicago: Adline publishing Company.