ORAL HISTORIES IN TANZANIA - NOTES

WHAT IS HISTORY?

History can be understood at two levels:

1.      History as reconstruction of the past/history as an inquiry: The reconstruction process involves two things:

§  Selection of facts: Not all facts are historical facts. Historical facts are the facts which have been selected and interpreted by a professional historian to meet his/her research objective (s).

§  Interpretation of facts: For historians facts do not speak for themselves. According to E.H.Carr “historians do the task of re-thinking the thoughts of those involved in past events/to make sense of past events. According to Boneventure Swai, an historian has to penetrate teh core of events he seek to describe. The end result of interpretation is creation of NARRATIVES. By narrative is meant the arrangement of events in a sequantial order. Narrative is a central componet of historical writing. According to Simon Gunn (2006) history is a narrative about real events that happened in the past. History, to use Carr’s words, is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts. It is an unending dialogue between the present and the past. In that case, reconstruction of the past is an endless process too.

2.      History as the knowledge of the past/knowledge/discipline e.t.c:

§  For historians, the past is not a dead past, but  a past which in some sense is still living (Carr).

§  Historical knowledge refers to a series of past events (verifiable facts/objective facts) arranged chronologically by a professional historian. It appears in  form of narratives.

WHAT IS HISTORIOGRAPHY?

Historiography has different meanings:

§  It refers to how historical knowledge is produced. A story of the development of methodology and practices of history. It also entails the perspectives taken by historians/school of thoughts/theoretical orientations e.t.c.

§  It also refers to the nature of what has been produced as historical knowoldge.

§  Historiographers do ask the question why historical knowledge is prouduced/philosophy of history.

§  Generally speaking, historiography “is the study of the history of historical study” to use Cark Becker’s words. It gives answers to the questions how, what & why historical knowledge is produced. It involves a number of issues:

a)      Notation of historical works.

b)      Purposes and points of view of the authors/historians.

c)      The sources used by historians.

d)     The accuracy and reliability of sources of historical knowledge.

SOURCES OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE

These are ways throug which historical information is obtained. Oral sources form part of historical research methodology. Source of historical knowledge in Africa and Tanzania in particular are diverse:

WRITTEN DOCUMENTS

Written sources available for E.African History can be categorized into three phases:

1.      Before 1800: For the coastal areas/societies there existed written documents going back to the time of early Greek, Egyptian and Muslim traders. The documents provide information of remote past as far back to the 1st Millenium AD. Very few documents exist for the interior societies. They are only available for the last 200 years. However they pose challenges in using them:

§          It somehow difficult to interprete them/language problem.

§  Accessibility: Most of them are treasured in the western archives and libraries. Very few documents are available in our archives and libraries.

§  Coverage: They cover small area of Africa. For example, “large part of Africa remains undocumented in the written recored before 1850, although a fair quantity of writings were available in Congo and Angola starting from the 16th century.”

§  In East Africa, written documents talk much of the coastal societies than of the interior societies. In that case, oral sources, particularly oral traditons (to be defined later) and archaeological sources have been the most reliable source of information for the history of the interior.

2.      Between 1800 and 1880s:

§  From about 1800 written records in the form of diaries, reports and letters from visiting European missionaries, explorers, traders and administrators provide much additional source material for the historians.

3.      Colonial Documents (1880-1960s)

§  These include government records, reports, correspondences, news papers as well as publications.

§  In particular to Tanganyika, Hans Corry, Henry Fosbrooke, Sally Falk Moore & G.Godon Brown were among the anthropologists who did their researches in the country.

§  The writings of these colonial intellectuals relied heavily on oral sources. They used anthropological reserch approach (to be elaborated later).  Some of their works were more or less historical works. The writings provide useful historical information when they are critically examined. However, they pose the following challenges to African historians:

a)      They present “an outside view of African societies.”

b)      They gave the wrong/negative picture of African societies. In other words, they were coloured with race prejudice.

c)      They scarcely provide information of remote past.

Strengths of Written Sources

According to Jan Vansina, there are two major strengths of writen sources:

§  Their precise chronology, because they are often less distorted than oral sources. They provide absolute dates.

§  Most of written texts are originals.

ARCHAEOLOGY/ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARTIFACTS

§  Simply put, archaeology is the study of the material remains of man’s past for the purpose of gathering information on life and culture of peoples.

§  Archaeology is the major source for reconstructing history of Africa.

§  For periods before A.D.1400 it stands almost alone.

§  It remains crucial for the recovery of data untill well into the 18th century.

Strengths of Archaological sources:

§  They yield a reasonably good chronology.

§  It provide objective reality of the past.

HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

§  It involves studying languages for the purpose of extracting historical information from them.

§  Language as a source of African history has been acknowledged at least since the classification of African languages by J.H.Greenberg.

§  Historical linguistics provides evidence on Bantu migration in Africa, spread of technologies (e.g.pottery and iron technology) as well as agriculture and pastoralism (srpead of ideas).

§  Christopher Ehret has made an attempt to use historical linguistics to examine the patterns of Bantu migration in Africa.

§  In fact, “the study of similarities in syntax, grammer and vocabulary among geographically desperate language populations provides invaluable historical information on the origins and movements of groups” (Richard Roberts, 2001).

§  Its weaknesses: According to Jan Vansina, “historical linguistics is very weak in chronology, its most serious drawback.”

ORAL SOURCES

§  These are sources which provide verbal information about the past.

§  Those who give information are called informants.

§  Oral information is handed down over generations throught the word of mouth/verbally.

§  Jan Vansina quotes Mbope Louis, who once said, “our books are in our heads.”

§  In fact, “most pre-colonial African civilizations were oral civilizations.” That’s what makes oral sources vital to the reconstruction of African history.

§  Bethwell Ogot, one of the pioneers of oral historical research in Kenya, once said: “Africans know their history and get on with their lives.”

§  Oral history methodology, defined as history research method which involves collectioin and interpretation of oral historical information for the purpose of reconstructing the past, became so popular in Africa since the publication of Oral Tradition as History by Jan Vansina in 1965. Trained as medievalist and ethnographer, Jan Vansina published his first book in 1961, De la tradition orale, essai de method historique, which appeared in english translation in 1965. The book outlines the basic rules historians should abide by when using oral sources to reconstruct the past.

Note that here you can as well give the background to the introduction of oral history at the department of history, UDSM, and talk of the debates that have lingered among its staff members since 1960s. You should also mention publications on oral-based books: Kimambo, Feierman, Giblin, Jamie, Israel, Gwassa etc.

TYPES OF ORAL SOURCES ACCORDING TO JAN VANSINA

1.      Eye witness accounts/evidence.

2.      Oral Traditions.

EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS

·         This refers to oral information given by a person who witnessed the event or participated in it.

·         Eye witness accounts are personal experiences of an informant about a particular past event.

·         The event mush have happened during the life time of the witness/informant. Therefore, eye witness accounts provide information of recent past.

         

General Characteristics of Eye Witness Accounts

·         Some are direct (told by a person who witnessed the event); some are not direct.

·         They mirror current issues in the society: mixing history with contemporary issues.

·         They are always influnced by the context of the informant.

·         They are often influenced by the personal interest of the informant in connection with issue concerned.

·         They often reflect power relations between the informant and interviewer or between the informant and the event concerned.

·         They constitute dealogue between the informant and interviewer rather than simple, clear cut truths.

ORAL TRADITIONS

·         Defined as testemonies transmitted orally from generation to another. According to Vansina testemony “consists of all statements made by one person about a single sequence of past events.”

·         The information coming from oral traditions go beyond the lifetime or generation of the informant. They provide information of remote past.

·         There can be different versions of traditions about a single historical process/event. For example, Rwandan traditions about the origin of the Hutu and Tutsi, first, the Hutu fell from heaven and met the Tutsi on the earth, and second, the Hutu and Tutsi are brothers.

·         “Most African societies have rich traditions of oral history and narratives that have recorded official histories and stories.” In west Africa, official oral historians called Griots have existed from time immorial.

·         According to Professor Kimambo, every African society whether centralized or no-centralized had people whose responsibilities were to keep the traditions of the society.

CLASSIFICATION OF ORAL TRADITIONS ACCORDING TO JAN VANSINA

1.      Poems: Traditions learned by heart or by rote. They follow rules of language (grammer). The wording is usually frozen and has a rigid form. Examples: ritual songs.

2.      Formulae: These are traditions which are not bound by rules of composition. They have free form. Examples: riddles, geneologies & traditional prayers.

3.      Epic-poems: these are traditions which portray a heroic character. Examples: leggends (stories about supernatural event. They use human beings as characters); Fables (imaginary stories which use animals as characters).

4.      Narratives: these are coherent accounts of past events. They are handed down over generations. The story is remembered and narrated by informants. The wording is free/no rules of composition. The words may change, so is the content, but never the meaning/the structure is flexible. Some are hypothetical/mythical in character, but they carry important historical information.

Note that that here there are some missing notes on the theoretical debates sorrounding the use of oral sources, which you can get on request [It was prepared separately]

PARTICULARITIES OF ORAL SOURCES

Oral sources have a number of unique elements which make them different form other sources of historical knowledge. These are following:

·         Its verbal character: Oral information is a verbal account. It is not a piece of writing or an artifact.

·         Its mode of transmission: Oral information is transmitted by word of mouth, not in written form. Informants remember it and transmit it to somebody else through the word of mouth.

·         Oral sources are intangible: A written document is an artifact, a munuscript while oral source is a message/testemony.

·         The nature of oral sources render them more subjective than written sources. For example, eye witness accounts involve perceptions and emotions of the witness (See Jan Vansina, 1985:4).

·         According to Jan Vansina, “oral tradition is not just a source about the past, but a historiology of the past, an account of how people have interpreted it.”

·         All oral evidence is essentially poetic and performative. In this it differs profoundly from written sources, which are not bound to the sensory experience of the hearer or audience in the same way. (See Barbara M. Cooper).

STRENGTHS OF ORAL SOURCES

§  They are the only sources that can be used to reconstruct a history of the society which is illiterate.

§  They are used to correct other perspectives. They correct other perspectives just as other perspectives correct it.

§  It gives chances for researches to gather additional information or ask for elaboration of points that are not understood.

§  Since they are perfomative, researchers benefit from body language used by the informants (Chance to read body language).

§  The allow historical knowledge to be produced from below, the so-called popular history. They give democracy ot common people to tell/give thier own perspectives and understanding of their past.

§  The give opportunity for African history, which has been writted in western perspective, to be re-writen from African perspective.

CHALLENGES INVOLVED IN USING ORAL SOURCES

§  Oral sources seldon present reliable chronology of events, whereas written sources are generally more advantageous in this regard.

§  Insufficiency of information: They never sufficiently answer our research questions.

§  They often contradict with other sources such as written and archaeological sources.

§  They are always subjective to some extent in transmitting information: oral information is coloured with bias or prejudice or ideological/cultural/political predispositions.

§  Diffficult in  evaluating them, especially in establishing their accuracy.

§  With regard to oral traditions, it is often challenging to decode or translate the messages encoded in them.

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ORAL SOURCES AND WRITTEN SOURCES

1.      They are both subjective and prejudiced or biased, and hence the information obtained from them must be critically evaluated and cautiosly used.

2.      Both oral and written sources offer chances for the researcher to find information that was not intended for his research and therefore not biased.

3.      Both provide only traces of what happened in the past; not the whole picture of the past.

4.      Both provide information at varying levels of elaboration, accuracy and truth, depending on the circumstances around their creation and transmission.

WORKING WITH ORAL SOURCES

Oral history methodology involves three major things:

§  Identification/selection of informants

§  Collection of oral information

§  Interpretation/evaluation of oral information

IDENTIFICATION OF INFORMANTS

In order to identify potential informants a researcher has to do the following things:

§  A researcher has to familiarize with the community and the local authority of the area under the study so that they can assist him/her in identifying the right informants. The purpose of your research must be known to the community/informants/local authorities.

§  A researcher must seek permission and acceptance to do research in the area concerned. He/she must make sure that the society accepts and trusts him/her.

§  A researcher should not be age selective when identifying potential informants. What is important is to identify people who have the knowledge of the past.

§  The social status of the informants selected for interview has to be known to the researcher to avoid collection of biased information.

It should be noted that in selecting informants historians rarely use samplying method. They rather apply what is called “purposive sampling.” Why?

§  Historians would like to get the best informed informants.

§  Historians often prefer qualitative information to quantitative information.

COLLECTION OF ORAL INFORMATION

Two major things are involved in collection of oral information:

1.      Preparation of ‘Questionnaires’ or guide questions.

2.      Organization of interviews.

QUESTIONNAIRES

In social sciences four major types of questionnaires/interview questions are used:

1.      Structured interview/questionnaires: With this questionnaires, questions are prepared before hand and are designed to collect quantitative/statistical information. Informants are selected randomly and no sample size is used. The questions demand short answers like YES or No.

2.      Semi-Structured Interview/questionnaires: These are questionnaires that are semi-structured. It is a combination of structured and non-structured interviews.

3.      Non-structured interviews: These are sometimes called guides. The questions are non-structured and are designed to gather qualitative information.

4.      Focus group interview: This involves selection of a few people not more than five for interview. This method is mostly used to resolve contradiction of oral accounts. The information are left free to discuss the issue in question.

Which are the interview method to be used by historians?

Historians usually use semi-structured and non-structured interviews. Why?

1.      They enable historians to gather past historical information.

2.      They give freedom to informants to recollect/remember past historical information.

3.      They are useful in collecting qualitative infomation which matters most to historians.

Types of Interview Settings

1.      Private Setting as opposed to Public Setting: The former brings together a researcher and an informant in a private environment while the latter does not require private environment: it can be done anywhere.

2.      Formal as opposed to Informal Interview Setting: The former involves the arrangement of interview activity in a formal way e.g. in a particular place, time and proper questions to be asked. In an informal interview setting there is no formality; the interviewer and the interviewee talk freely; no fixed time and place.

3.      Single versus Several Informants Interview Setting:  This involves interviewing a single informant at a time or interviewing a group of informants at a time/group interviews.

Note: Each of the above interview settings has advantages and disadvantages.

How do we handle oral interviews in the field?

When conducting oral interviews the following things must be considered:

§  Start informally and proceed as much informally as is possible. You should avoid been too formal in the beginning of the interview. For example, it is not advisable to start by asking questions straight away. Try as much as possible to establish rapport/friendship before you zero down to issues at hand.

§  Allow the informant to respond to the questions freely. You can however intervine by posing a new guestion to bring the informant to the line (in case he/she is off question).

§  Guide the informant to give you information you want in  a polity way. In other words, dont be harsh to the informant. Avoid not to argue with your infomant. You also need to appreciate whatever they are able to provide.

§  When asking questions, avoid the use of jargons/technical/difficult terminologies. Your respondents may not understand you and you may end up getting wrong infomation or none at all.

§  You should record information about the informants (their personal particulars) like names, ages, occupations, social status e.t.c. You have to be very careful in soliciting this information because informants may not be willing to share it. Personal particulars of the informants help in interpretation of oral texts and in aknowledging the sources of information.

Recording Interviews

There are three ways that are used to record interviews:

1.      Use of Note Books: It involves writing down oral information which is been narrated by the informant. What will you do when the informant refuses his information to be written down? Solution: listen to him very carefully and once the interview is done go home and start writting it down before you forget it!

Challenges

§  It needs fast writing skills.

§  Much time is devoted to writing than to evaluating the quality of information.

2.      Use of Tape Recorder: This involves tape-recording of the infomation been narrated by the informants. You should not record the informant without his permission. That is against the reserch ethics.

Challenges

§  Breakdown

§  Informants may not be willing to be tape-recorded.

§  The information that is tape-recorded has to be put in writing which is rather tidious.

3.      Video-recording: This is useful when performances like traditional dances and songs are involved.

Challenges

§  Expensive.

§  Time consuming.

§  Breakdown.

Factors determing the choice of the method of recording

§  Willingness/choice of informant.

§  Type of oral information to be collected.

§  Choice of the resercher (in case the informant is not selective).

Advantages of Private Interview Setting

·         It enhances confidence of the informants: They feel free to give information without fear.

·         There is high possibility of gathering sufficient oral information.

·         It enhances concentration on both parties.

·         It saves time.

Disadvantages of Private Interview Setting                             

·         It is difficult to achieve high degree of objectivity. Why? No one to correct the informant or to challenge him.

·         Some informants may not be willing to be interviewed privately because of fear.

Advantages of Public Interview Setting

·         The informant will be relaxed and is more likely to give objective information.

·         It allows more freedom to the informant, hence confidence is assured.

·         It is quite possible to gather additional and a piece of oral information you did not expect to get.

Disadvantage of Public Interview Setting

·         The informant may not feel obliged to give you infomation. He may not feel the responsibility to assist you.

·         The level of concentration is minimal due to interfearence and noisy environment (suppose it is a market place).

Advantages of Formal Interview Setting

·         It saves time. Why? The interview activity is programmed.

·         It promotes concentration.

·         There is a possibility of collecting detailed oral information.

Disadvantages of Formal Interview Setting

·         You may miss the opportunity to gather useful unintended oral information. Why? The informant is limited to specific questions.

·         The informant may not feel free/less confidence.

Advantages of Informal Interview Setting

·         Informant is free and confident.

·         There is a possibility of gathering an unintended oral historical information.

Disadvantages of Informal Interview Setting

·         The is low level of concentration.

·         Lack of seriousness on the part of the informant.

Advantages of Single informant interview Setting

·         No interfearence.

·         There is a possibility of asking questions for elaboration.

·         The researcher/historian stands a chance of collecting information which is kept as a secreat in the society to which the informant belong.

Disadvantage of Single Informant Interview

·         The informant may not feel free.

Advantages of  Group Interview

·         It is possible to gather sufficient information.

·         It is possible to resolve contradiction of oral accounts.

·         The informants are confident.

·         It helps in interpretation of oral information.

Factors Determing the Choice of Interview Setting

·         The nature of the society (e.g. when some information is kept as a secrete)

·         Readness of the informants.

WHAT NEXT AFTER INTERVIEWS

·         Go back home and organize the material collected in a proper way. Here you will have to transcribe the information collected.

·         Identify the missing links or information gaps to be covered in the next day of interview.

·         Evaluate your oral texts (there are some principles to be used here which will be discussed later).

·         Keep your oral texts in a public place for other researchers to access them. Why?

a)      Other researchers may with to use them for other research purposes.

b)      Scholars would like to evaluate the validity of your interpretations.

c)      They have to be kept for future generation considering the fact that the

informants who gave you information will not live forever.

METHODS OF COLLECTING ORAL INFORMATION OTHER THAN INTERVIEWS

1.      Anthropological Approach: This method was used by Kimambo and Feierman in Pare and Shambaa societies respectively. It involves staying for quite a long time in the field to familiarize with people’s culture or acculturate, to use Vansina’s words. This enables you to befriend a lot of people and the society to trust you. For example, Steven Feierman was able to learn and master the Shambaa language. Likewise, Kimambo was able to assimilate to Pare society so much so that he was able to collect oral information without going through the formal process of conducting interviews.

Advantages of Athropological Method

·         A researcher will be treated as a normal member of the society, hence people will trust him.

·         A researcher will make a lot of friends who may volunter to give information or direct you to potential informants they know.

·         Staying for a long time in the field enables you to come up with valid interpretation of oral traditions, because you will have known the socio-political structure of that particular society.

·         There is a possibility of gathering sufficient oral historical information.

2.      Field Observation: This involves visiting historical sites that are found in the area of study, such as archaeological sites, ritual sites e.t.c.

3.      Use of Pictography: Pictography comes from the word pictogram, which is a picture or an object representing a word or a phrase. Certain pictures and objects are kept by some societies as momentos of the past. Objects like knotted robes and skulls are kept by some societies as relics of past rulers, and, as such, they provide useful historical information.

4.      Mnemonic Aids/Devices (Pronounced as ‘nimonik’): Mnemonic refers to a word, a sentence or a poem that helps people remember past information. Mnemonic devices can be found in royal tombs, battlefields and in ritual sites. Therefore, it is very important for historians to visit these places to collect such information.

EVALUATION/INTERPRETATION OF ORAL INFORMATION

According to Jan Vansina, “oral traditions are not just a source about the past, but a historiology of the past, an account of how people have interpreted it.” Nevertheles, historians are warned that they should not take oral information collected from the field at face value. They have to evaluate it by subjecting it to what Vansina calls “critical approach” or “rules of evidence.” The fact is, oral information has to be evaluated by a professional historian before it is used as historical evidence.

How do we evaluate oral information?

Several principles/rules are used:

§  You have to consider the socio-political context in which such information evolved. This involves considerations of social and political changes that have taken place in the past.

§  You have to cross-check oral information with written information to find out any agreement or disagreement (Textual critisism). In case of an agreement, oral information is considered as valid and reliable. In case of disagreement, treat both sources equally. But you need to inform the readers of such contraversy.

§  You have to compare your information with archaeological information. In case of contradiction, use oral information if archaeological information is inferred (not based on real object/artifact). If there is disagreement with archaeological information which is based on real object/artifact, the latter should prevail.

§  You need to compare different oral accounts to find out divergences or convergences. In case of disagreement, you need to apply focus group interviews to resolve it. In case of an agreement, then consider yourself as having a strong piece of oral evidence.

§  Whereas there is only one source of information on an important issue, use this limited information but inform readers about the limitation – tell them that the information came from a single source and could not be cross-checked with others.

§  Oral texts collected from the field have to be kept in a public place for other researchers to access them. The collections should indicate names of informants, ages, places of origin (where the interview was done), date of interview e.t.c.

HOW DO WE ESTABLISH CHRONOLOGY WHEN USING ORAL SOURCES?

Many critics of oral history methodology point out that a history reconstructed on the basis of oral accounts lacks chronology.  Nevertheles, oral historians have developed several methods  which can be used to establish relative chronology and absolute chronology. It appears that oral historians often use relative chronology than absolute chronology in dating past historical events. There are several sources of relative chronology:

1)      Lists: e.g. lists of important historical events such as famine, drought, locusts’ invasions, initiation ceremonies e.t.c. These events can be used to date events especially when their order of occurrences is accurately known in the society.

2)      Genealogies: e.g. generations: “According to Jan Vansian “a large number of studies have shown that the average length of a dynastic generation is between 26 and 32 years. Oral historians of Tanzania have estimated the average length of generation at 25 and 30 years. By counting the generations backward or forward from a known base year, historians can establish both relative chronology and absolute chronology. Absolute chronology can be obtained by calculating “the average between the first absolute reference supplied by a written date and the present day.”

3)      Past climatic or astronomical occurances: e.g. eclipse: They are also important sources of chronology especially when they are recorded.

4)      Using chronology of a similar study which is based on a similar social and geographical contexts.

Challenges of Using the Above Sources of Chronology

1)      When using geneaology, a chronology may be distorted by foreshortening: e.g. in the event some useless ancestors have been deliberately removed from the list.

2)      When using geneology, a chronology may  be prolonged as a result of double counting: e.g. when “kings who abdicated and subsequently returned to power are counted as single reign.”

3)      When using lists or geneology, a chronology of events can be confused taking an example of a drought of a war which has been given two names.

4)      It may happen that the above-mentioned sources of chronology are missing in your area of study.

Note: Oral history does not lack chronology only that it relies much more on relative chronology than absolute chronology. The limitations of the sources of relative chronology are the major challenges faced by oral historians. However, oral historians are optimistic that new sources of chronology will be invented as oral history methodology continues to grow.