What is the oral literature of Africa?

Oral literature (or orature, the term by Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu) may be in prose or verse. The prose is often mythological or historical and often includes tales of the trickster character. Storytellers in Africa sometimes use call-and-response techniques to tell their stories.

Why is oral history important to historians of Africa?

Oral history both corrected the records of the colonial era and filled in the institutional gaps resulting from post-colonial African governments’s inability and unwillingness to continue the bureaucratic record keeping traditions of their predecessors.

What are oral traditions in history?

Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or verses.

What is the origin of oral literature?

The term oral literature originates from here; at the early stage of human history, all literary works were preserved by oral tradition. As writing systems were invented and literacy replaced orality, such oral literature was also written down as fixed texts.

What historical roles have oral traditions played in African culture?

The history of Africa is rich with oral tradition. Much of these traditions have been preserved by griots, people who tell tales, speak proverbs and even sing songs to pass down the traditions of their culture. Folktales and proverbs are both examples of African oral traditions.

Why are oral sources considered important in the writing of Nigerian history?

One of the reasons why oral sources are important is that though it establishes facts about the history of a people, the oral traditions are able to corroborate what the archeologists have discovered. This way, all doubts about the phenomenon is cleared once and for all.

What is the oldest oral story?

Volcanic eruptions that occurred in the region about 37,000 years ago appear to have been incorporated into the local aboriginal creation story, or “Dreamtime,” which may be the longest surviving oral history still being passed on from generation to generation.

Why is oral history so important?

Oral history helps round out the story of the past. Oral history provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by augmenting the information provided by pub- lic records, statistical data, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, and other historical materials.

What is the origin of African literature?

Modern African literatures were born in the educational systems imposed by colonialism, with models drawn from Europe rather than existing African traditions. But the African oral traditions exerted their own influence on these literatures.

What was the first oral literature?

The epics containing the story of Gilgamesh are of the earliest known works of the oral literature (7). They are about the adventures of hero Gilgamesh and his quest for immortality.

What is the importance of oral history in African history?

Oral history both corrected the records of the colonial era and filled in the institutional gaps resulting from post-colonial African governments’s inability and unwillingness to continue the bureaucratic record keeping traditions of their predecessors. Who is involved in the African oral history project?

What is oral tradition in African culture?

WHAT IS ORAL TRADITION? Oral tradition is when history, stories, memories and traditions are spoken about and passed on from generation to generation. Oral traditions are part of the African way of life. They are how we share cultural heritage and beliefs.

What is the oral history project?

In addition to this “service to the community” (both in St. Louis and in Africa), the project gives WU students training and firsthand experience in oral history methodologies, and the resulting data serves as the basis for original scholarship including senior theses, dissertations, and collaborative faculty publications.

When was oral tradition written?

The appearance of his De la tradition orale in 1961 and its English version Oral Tradition in 1964 represented both a “trial balloon” and a clarion call for those who believed in the potential of oral tradition as a means of reconstructing precolonial African history.