Authentication of African oral history
There are debates in many academic institutions and other centres of learning on whether African oral history should be regarded as authentic to compete with the Western documented history.
Lamb (1990) remarks that the history of Africa was passed from one generation to the other by the spoken, not written word. Consequently, its civilisations remained shrouded in mystery, and many other species around the globe could not have access to it.
Hochschild (1999) also maintains that despite the beginnings of stories lying very far back in time, their reverberations may still be felt after a very long time, particularly if the lived experiences were bitter and painful.
According to Alagoa (2005), oral tradition is a viable source and a history in its own right, and recognises the fact that the custodians of the traditions are both informants and historians. However, a question is always asked whether there is a philosophy of history in the African oral tradition. Simpson (2004) maintains that stories, folklore, proverbs, songs, poetry, drama, wise sayings and praises form the pattern through which events and occurrences are preserved and passed on from one generation to the other.
Njoroge and Bennaars (1986) affirm that traditional educational thought has always been expressed orally, and caution that the spoken word is always difficult to capture and assess.
They emphasise that the spoken word becomes even more difficult if it was spoken in the distant past.
Because much of the accounts of lived experience in Africa were not recorded way back in time, many researchers rely on oral tradition, or resort to the ethnophilosophical approach, which seeks to unearth the philosophies of non-Western cultures through the study of oral traditions, analysis of language, social structure and religion.
Appiah (1992) on the other hand concedes that a “folk philosophy” exists in Africa, although he believes that oral tradition is not hospitable to philosophy.
Tempels (1959) formulated a Bantu philosophy, from the “implicit,” “folk,” philosophy of the oral tradition of the Baluba, while Alexis Kagame (1976) formulated a philosophy of being from the African languages of Rwanda.
Placide Tempels in his book Bantu Philosophy (1959) argued that the metaphysical categories of the African people are reflected in their linguistic categories. According to this view, African philosophy can be best understood as springing from the fundamental assumptions about reality reflected in the languages of Africa.
Lamb (1990) also asserts that Africa has taken all the worst aspects of European bureaucracy, combined them with ignorance and indifference, and came up with a system that is as undirected as lethargic as a rudderless dhow in a rough sea, and as a result, the Western system fails to work in Africa.
On the other hand, Njoroge and
Bennaars (1986) stress that African traditional ways of thinking are not irrational or emotional expressions of simple minds because they resemble the modes of thought that are usually associated with scientific theories.
However, Kaphagawani and Malherbe (2002) caution about not making a huge generalisation concerning African cultures, customs, religions, knowledge and beliefs as Africa includes so many diverse peoples from different backgrounds. Njoroge and Bennaars (1986) also stress that Africa is a vast continent, which has in the past been populated by people living in very different societies and cultures. Above that, most expressions of traditional thought appear to be dateless and timeless.
It should equally be stressed that the West is not a homogenous entity, but differentiated in terms of class, intellect, morality and political ideology. Therefore, to generalise African philosophy as one entity will be missing the philosophical point.
What should, therefore, be considered is that Africans have the capability to think critically like any human species around the globe, if given such opportunity to do so. Njoronge and Bennaars (1986) maintain that African indigenous education was a process of initiation, of socialisation into the already established knowledge of the past. Knowledge was always a communal affair. It dealt with facts and skills, values and ideas, attitudes and behaviour as relevant to a given society.
However, Njoroge and Bennaars (1986) maintain that colonial governments propagated an educational theory that directly reflected the well-established ‘principles of education’ found in Western thought. In the process, these principles were often modified to suit and perpetuate the colonial situation.
Today, values of traditional Western education continue to be emphasised in the area of education in Africa. There has been a tendency of approaching African oral history from a Western historical perspective. In the Zambezi region, for example, there are contested claims about its history.
The main contributing factor of this complicated situation is, among others, a lack of objectivity among the residents or inhabitants of the region.
In addition, very scanty literature is available on the early arrivals in the region.
The earliest writings and records about the region are equally controversial as they are Eurocentric, and could be a third-part version of the events in the region. In addition and above that, the source of information was purely oral tradition, spanning over centuries. Again, because of the Christian orientation and principles, the narrators tend to doubt the validity and accuracy of some mythology portrayed as authentic.
In the midst of this controversy, academicians from the region should find platforms for exchanging notes and come up with authentic oral history. As Mandela once said, “All seems impossible until it is done.”