Oral Sources on Links Between Great States: Sumanguru, Servile Lineage, the Jariso, and Kaniaga

1984 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 35-55
Author(s):  
David C. Conrad

Qui est capable, hors Dieu, de scruter le passé?Some scholars interested in ancient Ghana and Mali dare to sift relevant oral traditions of the Western Sudan in search of historical evidence, while others express doubts that these sources can contain any information of value to historians. A period markedly affected by this question is that which saw the disintegration of Ghana and the rise of Mali in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Despite historians' general acknowledgement of the pitfalls accompanying the use of oral tradition as a source of information, much of what we know, or would like to think we know about this era, has been drawn from the legend of Wagadu and from the Sunjata epic.Clearly a large part of the material in these oral traditions is composed of the stuff of myth and folktale, and on the face of it the prospect of trying to glean historical information from them is not an encouraging one. But woven into the patchwork fabric of these narratives are infrequent threads bearing diminishing echoes of people and events of the distant past. Vague, inaccurate, and potentially misleading as they must be, these archaic fragments nevertheless merit whatever attention is necessary to interpret their significance, in the hope that they might yield some useful historical insights.Any pretensions to historicity in the Wagadu tradition and in the Sunjata epic may be open to question because there is so little that can be verified. While the mythical quality of some elements in the texts is obvious, there are others that could have a historical basis but cannot be independently confirmed. The material consulted here is approached with the attitude that, given the rarity of firmly documented sources, historians cannot afford to ignore the possibility that there is some information worth distilling from the oral accounts of ancient Mali and the related Soninke era that preceded it.

Author(s):  
Stephen Belcher

The use of oral tradition is a distinctive and essential element in many fields of African studies. History must acknowledge it; literature sees it as the medium for much of the indigenous creative endeavor across African cultures; anthropology and its cousin disciplines rely upon oral information for their understanding of traditional societies. An appreciation of the value of the oral tradition as a source across disciplines involves two efforts: first, a survey of the reported oral tradition as available and documented in past periods, and second, a review of the principles and practices involved in the collection, analysis, and presentation of the oral tradition. The paucity of written records has been grounds for dismissal of the notion of African history—most notoriously in the case of Hegel, who in ignorance wrote off the home of the human species—and more recently a cause of pride among African intellectuals who have asserted the value of the oral tradition in the face of skepticism rooted in prejudice and too often in overt racism. An appreciation of the value of the oral tradition threads its path between extremes and occasional controversy. The era of the smartphone has made the documentation (and creation) of oral tradition almost too easy. Past generations made do in different ways. Their reports should not be dismissed, but studied; they are the available background to information collected in the modern era. Accurate collection and critical analysis are the essential tools for the understanding of oral tradition.


Author(s):  
Agbenyega Adedze

The Amazons in general come from Greek legend and myth without any palpable historical evidence. However, there is no doubt about the historical female fighters of the erstwhile Kingdom of Dahomey (Danhome or Danxome) in West Africa, which survived until their defeat by the French colonial forces in 1893. The history of the historical Amazons of the Kingdom of Dahomey stems from vast amounts of oral tradition collected and analyzed over the years, as well as written accounts by Europeans who happened to have visited the kingdom or lived on the West African coast since Dahomey’s foundation in the 17th century to its demise in the late 19th century. These sources have been reviewed and debated by several scholars (including Amélie Degbelo, Stanley B. Alpern, Melville J. Herskovits, Hélène d’Almeida-Topor, Boniface Obichere, Edna G. Bay, Robin Law, Susan Preston Blier, Auguste Le Herisse, etc.), who may or may not agree on the narrative of the founding of the kingdom or the genesis of female fighters in the Dahomean army. Nonetheless, all scholars agree that the female forces traditionally called Ahosi/Mino did exist and fought valiantly in many of Dahomey’s battles against their neighbors (Oyo, Ouemenou, Ouidah, etc.) and France. The history of the Ahosi/Mino is intricately linked to the origins and political and social development of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Ahosi/Mino are still celebrated in the oral traditions of the Fon.


1996 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 87-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Jansen

For the reconstruction of the history of the aftermath of the Mali empire, that is, the period 1500-1800, oral traditions are the only source of information. The history of this period has been reconstructed by Person and Niane. Their work has gained widespread acceptance. In this paper I will argue that these scholars made significant methodological errors—in particular, in interpreting chronology in genealogies, and their reading of stories about invasions and the seizure of power by younger brothers.My reading of the oral tradition raises questions about the nature of both sixteenth- and nineteenth-century Mande (that is the triangle Bamako-Kita-Kankan (see map), the region where the ‘Malinke’ live), and the medieval Mali empire, because I think that Mande royal genealogies have wrongly been considered to represent claims to the imperial throne of the Mali empire. In contrast, my reading of oral tradition suggests in retrospect that the organizational structure of the Mali empire may have been segmentary, and not centralized, ranking between segments under discussion, each group thereby creating a hierarchical image.The conventional wisdom seems to be that the Mali empire collapsed/disintegrated in the period from 1500 and 1800. As Person put it:Dans le triangle malinké, on ne trouvera plus au XIX siècle que des kafu, ces petites unités étatiques qui forment les cellules politiques fondamentales du monde mandingue. Certains d'entre eux savaient faire reconnaître leur hégémonie à leurs voisins, mais aucune structure politique permante n'existait à un niveau supérieur. Beaucoup d'entre eux, dont les plus puissants et les plus peuplés, seront alors commandées par des lignées Kééta qui se réclament avec quelque vraisemblance des empereurs du Mali médiéval.


Comunicar ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco-Javier Ruiz-San-Miguel ◽  
Sonia Blanco

Nowadays the tv media are in the face of an emergent phenomenon as it is the appearance of a new no organic lobby that questions the veracity of the television contents exercising at the time a strong quality control on the same ones. It is the new inspection of the interactive screen (computer-internet) above the directive screen (television). That that up to now was a passive viewer, subject of a vertical and hierarchical communication, passes to be involved in the information that receives and also becomes creator of contents, correcting and questioning the credibility of traditional television means and getting at the time a high influence level. Examples of this influence would be the recent resignations of two important American communicators as Dan Rather, consecrated journalist newsreader in the channel 'CBS', and Eason Jordan, director of information of the 'CNN' until his resignation. Both withdrawals were caused basically by the social mobilization taken place in a new generation that, from the blogosphere, makes hear its voice. The disorganization of this new influence group in the civil society, far from supposing an obstacle, guarantees in certain way its independence, in front of other organizations and viewers' associations whose effectiveness could be questioned bearing in mind the current situation of the television contents. The present television faces the challenge than means the level of exigency from a new generation of spectators for who, they are no longer the main source of information, but only a member more of an universe of global communication multi-screen and therefore will have to fight for their primacy in a world in which the user have the opportunity to access to a very superior informative offer, even changing from passive receiver to emitting agent able to carry out an interesting work facing the control of quality of the audio-visual products that spread from the different commercial and/or public broadcasters. El pasado año, el Instituto Nacional del Consumo realizó un sondeo sobre los hábitos de consumo de la televisión y de nuevas tecnología de la infancia y la juventud que desvelaba datos tan significativos como que el consumo solitario de la televisión se va consolidando, frente al tradicional consumo en familia. Así mismo destacaba el hecho de que la ausencia (o escasa presencia) de una programación infantil dirigida específicamente a la infancia, no impide que los niños se estrenen como «consumidores» de televisión a edades muy tempranas: la mayoría entre los 2 y los 3 años. Por otro lado, en las Jornadas de Política y Periodismo llevadas a cabo en la ciudad de Estepona el pasado 13 de julio, se destacó el hecho de que hay una franja de edad entre los 17 y 25 años para quienes la televisión se ha convertido en un medio marginal como fuente de información. En este marco, parece adecuado cuestionarse la calidad de los contenidos televisivos y como los receptores de esos contenidos puede influir en ellos con algo más que con unos determinados índices de audiencia que, salvo excepciones, en nada se corresponden con los criterios de calidad exigibles a un servicio público. Por ello, en este artículo se verá cómo en la actualidad los medios televisivos se encuentran ante un novedoso fenómeno emergente: la aparición de un nuevo lobby no orgánico que cuestiona la veracidad de sus contenidos, ejerciendo de esta manera un fuerte control de calidad sobre los mismos. Es la nueva fiscalización de la pantalla interactiva (ordenador-internet), sobre la pantalla directiva (televisión). Lo que hasta ahora era un telespectador pasivo, sujeto a una comunicación vertical y jerarquizada, está pasando a involucrarse en la información que recibe y además se convierte en creador de contenidos, corrigiendo y cuestionando la credibilidad de medios televisivos tradicionales y consiguiendo al tiempo un elevado nivel de influencia. Ejemplos de dicha presión serían las recientes dimisiones de dos importantes comunicadores estadounidenses como Dan Rather, consagrado periodista presentador de informativos en la cadena CBS, y Eason Jordan, director de información de la CNN hasta su retirada. Ambos abandonos fueron provocados básicamente por la movilización social producida en una nueva generación que, desde la blogosfera hace oír su voz. La desestructuración de este nuevo grupo de influencia en la sociedad civil, lejos de suponer un obstáculo, garantiza en cierto modo su independencia, frente a otras organizaciones y asociaciones de telespectadores cuya efectividad podría ser cuestionada a tenor de la situación actual de los contenidos televisivos. La televisión actual se enfrenta hoy día al reto de asumir una nueva generación de espectadores, para quienes ya no es su única fuente de información, sino sólo un miembro más de un universo de comunicación global multipantalla, y por tanto tendrá que luchar por su primacía en un mundo en el que el usuario accede a una oferta informativa muy superior, incluso mutando de receptor pasivo a agente emisor capaz de desempeñar una interesante labor de cara al control de calidad de los productos audiovisuales que se difunden desde las diferentes emisoras comerciales y/o públicas.


1967 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satish C. Saberwal

The oral traditions of the acephalous pre-contact Embu are critically summarized. The Shungwaya hypothesis concerning the origin of the Kikuyu and related peoples is examined and rejected. The possibility of using the Embu oral tradition as a source of historical information is discounted and some opportunities for linguistics and archaeology suggested. The paper concludes with a survey of Embu contacts with the coastal traders and early European-led parties.


1980 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Saller

Historians' judgements about the evidential value of anecdotes have oscillated over the past decades. In the early part of this century authors of German textbooks on historical method warned students against using anecdotes on the grounds that their form was not fixed and their contents fluctuated since the narrators exercised their imaginations to improve stories with each telling. J. Vansina, an anthropologist studying the value of oral traditions for reconstructing African history, concluded in his more recent work that the anecdote is among the least reliable types of oral tradition. Nevertheless, recent scholarly works on Roman imperial history have utilized anecdotes for the sorts of social, economic, and administrative details which the available political narratives ignore. No systematic analysis has been undertaken to justify this use. I shall attempt to fill the gap by asking three basic questions: in what social contexts were anecdotes generated and transmitted; what changes in content were likely to occur during transmission; and what are the implications for the use of anecdotes as historical evidence?


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhanashree Thorat ◽  

Dorothy Noyes, in her essay "Tradition: Three Traditions," notes that the word "tradition" implies "handing over" or "delivery" (Noyes 233). Furthermore, tradition is identified as a communal belonging that involves "the transfer of responsibility for a valued practice or performance" from one generation to the next (233). This essay will apply the characteristics and role of "tradition," outlined by Noyes and others, to develop a critical understanding of two acts of oral tradition pivotal to the spiritual transformation of Avey Johnson, the protagonist of Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow. These two interconnected acts, the story of Ibo Landing and the ritual of Beg Pardon, are instances of oral memory that are shared and transmitted between peers and to future generations through story telling and performance. Among other purposes, the oral traditions in Praisesong for the Widow give Avey a sense of belonging to the African diasporic and African American community, help her recreate and reclaim her cultural heritage, and finally, preserve the experiences of the enslaved Africans and their descendants in North America. In the novel, Marshall also sounds a warning to her readers about the need for vigilance in protecting oral traditions in the face of materialism.


2005 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
András Simonovits

According to the dominant view, the quality of individual scientific papers can be evaluated by the standard of the journal in which they are published. This paper attempts to demonstrate the limits of this view in the field of economics. According to our main findings, a publication frequently serves as a signal of high professional standards rather than as a source of information; referees and editors frequently reject good papers and accept bad ones; citation indices only partially balance the distortions deriving from the selection process; there are essential “entry costs” to the publication process. Moreover, financial interests of publishers may contradict scientific interests. As long as leading economists do not give voice to their dissatisfaction, there is no hope for any reform of the selection process.


ALAYASASTRA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Ery Agus Kurnianto

The focus of the problem in this study is the values of local wisdom within two oral traditions of Warag-Warah and Ringgok-Ringgok of Komering Tribe, South Sumatra. This study aimed to identify and to describe elements of local wisdom within those oral traditions. In addition, this study was established as a real effort to explore, to inventorize, and to document the oral traditions of Komering society. A descriptive method was applied in this study. The data were analyzed by applying qualitative approach on ethnographic elements to demonstrate and explain the value of local wisdom within those oral traditions. The theory applied in this study were oral literature and local wisdom. The conclusion from the analysis proved that there was a concept of social relations among individuals, among individuals and society, among social groups, and among individuals and their God. The value of local wisdom that had been identified were: 1) belief in God, 2) deliberation, 3) responsibility and 4) helping each other. The actualization of the value of local wisdom within the oral traditions of Warag-Warah and Ringgok-Ringgok was in form of behaving in ways that help each other, solving problems by means of deliberation and responsibility. Keywords: Oral tradition, warah-warah, ringgok-ringgok, local wisdom values.


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