Africa oral history pdf

Finally, i shall try to summarise some of the results of oral history in africa. 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. A portuguese settlement was established at luanda in present. African history was to be the history of africans, a history that had begun well before the european discovery of africa. Oral history has been the major source of reconstructing the past of mainly oral societies, and thus has a particular relevance to the african continent. African oral history department of african and african. This article offers the text of remarks given by professor turner on march. Ruth finnegans oral literature in africa was first published in 1970, and. What makes oral history attractive in contemporary south africa. Historiography and methods of african history african. Professor bonner, who has conducted research in south africa, swaziland, and mozambique to some extent, emphasises the significance of oral history in africa.

Jallow david henige 2006 traces the beginning of the use of oral tradition as. The oral tradition as a source of african history sage journals. This discussion is of particular relevance to african communities. Oral history to save the world heritage of memory in africa. Ruth finnegan is a visiting research professor and emeritus professor in the faculty of social sciences at the open university. Until the late colonial period, it was widely believed among western historians that africa, south of the sahara, had no civilization and thus no history. Although written his tory existed for centuries in west af rica, most writing was in arabic, and the. African literature the influence of oral traditions on. After south africas first democratic elections in 1994, education in south. Others insisted that even if there were events of a historical nature, such a history was unknown and unknowable, since african societies, for the most part.