Oral Tradition: 🗣️ A source for studying African History.📚

Hello, I welcome you once again to our virtual WASI History TV. In our previous video, we looked at archaeology as a source for studying African history and Today we are going to look at yet another example of a non-documentary source used in We're going to look at oral tradition as a source of The European Parliament has a duty to make the most of the opportunities offered by the European Union. The tradition is one example of a non-documentary source used in the reconstruction of African The first is the history of the African continent, or the honorable sources used in the reconstruction of African history. We'll look at the definition and the issues surrounding oral tradition and then we'll Look at another video of the advantages or disadvantages of using oral tradition Before we begin today's lesson, I would urge you to subscribe I'm going to go to the channel and also recommend it to your friends in other schools. So our lesson objectives for today will be that by the end of This lesson or discussion, you should be able to explain oral tradition as a source for studying So what do we mean by oral tradition, right? And so you should be able to explain and how it helped us to acquire information for The Commission has already made a number of proposals to the Council and the Council. The European Parliament has a duty to ensure that the European Parliament is able to identify the forms of oral traditions that we have. The oral tradition is of two kinds and therefore by the end of our discussion you should have You should be able to identify these two forms and also give examples of these two forms. So let's start with the first two forms, and then we'll start with the second one. The definition of oral tradition. Now oral tradition refers to account of traditions Account or traditions about the past, passed down from generation to generation So these are the things that are passed down from generation to generation through the word of what of mathematics. The stories are told to generations over and over again. about the past which is something that happened in the past which has been passed down from generation to generation So let's give a typical example. You know for example while we were growing up as children there was this story or this They have this tradition which says that oral tradition which says that I mean God lived with man initially but because of man's activity there was a certain woman old woman who would Normally pound fufu and because of the pounding of fufu the tip of the pistol always you know hit God and therefore kept God you know far from man. And the most interesting thing is that the first generation of people Some of these traditions are actually not found in books. The most interesting thing about oral tradition is that it is there. And so you can think about what are some of the oral traditions Traditions that you remember so that was common during your I mean you growing up you know you So let's look at the next one. Now oral traditions could be in For example, there is this Akan oral tradition Anansi telling you stories about Kwikwanansi. You know heroic people right, it could be in songs, it could be in myth. It could be in folk tales, customs and other forms of music. I mean for example there is this music about Yaa Asantewaa, a queen mother of Ejusu, a suburb in modern Ghana today where they sing a song. So you know a song that depicts the caliber of Yaa Asantewaa. A queen mother who fought the British in 1900 when they tried to take the golden stool. You know and some of these if you travel across Africa you come across some of these oral So as you can see it could be in the form of stories, legends, songs, myths which are So you tell your children, your children's children And then tell their children, and then tell their children and then it goes on and on. So as you can see in the image over here you see this old lady with these children. You know she could be telling them a folk tale or a legend. The story of a certain chief priest among the Akan known as Okonfokanochi. You understand most of them are legends. As you've seen in the image here, see this is a woman trying to, I mean of course telling them And this is very important for studying African history because oral tradition in the absence of any other sources, oral tradition becomes the main source Because most of our times our ancestors, You know, the art of writing was a late event that occurred in Africa. They didn't know how to write or record events and So it's a great source, and it's a great way to learn about the history of the people of the world. It's a great non-documentary source for reconstruction of African history. The first form we have is the fixed text type And then the second one we have the free text type. is unchangeable in the sense that it must be transmitted or told or recounted, And these are usually songs, So you know if the tradition is in the songs, you can't change the song. sing the song as it is to the person you're telling it to. You're free to actually use your own words. But let's look at the definitions proper. So what do we mean by the fixed text type? The text type of oral tradition has an unchanging format and content. The format, you can't change the format, so the way it's told, you can't change it. The content too, you can't change it, okay. So unchanging format. So for example, I gave you an example of a song sung for Yaa Asantewaa, a queen mother in Ejuso, a suburb in modern-day Ghana. That song contains history, it contains the deeds of this queen mother. If you want to sing that song to someone else, you can't change the format. It must be told the same way. The content must be the same thing. To recount such an event, it means you have to memorize and pass it on from generation to generation. That's how we got to know about the song. Let's look at some examples of the fixed text type. So one of the examples we have is worse folk music. And that's what I just told you. So these are songs sung to praise heroic people. And then we have words of drum music. which then means the king Boa Amponsim who uses fresh gold all the time. And their drum music, Even at festivals, when you hear people drumming, when you hear the drummers drumming at festivals, If you don't know what I'm talking about, You can ask people who are actually knowledgeable in that. The music we hear at festivals is not ordinary rhythms. And one of these, of course, an example of such is the Boa Amponsim in modern-day Ghana. Words of horn music. You know what horn music is? You know, of course, very often when You know, when you're at a festival, you hear people, I mean, playing some horn. Like following the king. All of those are fixed text type. You need to learn and memorize how I know you're okay with the way things are, but I'm not going to change the way things are. The free text type consists of accounts of So this one, accounts of events, usually about stool histories. That's a royal family history, town history, you know, of course, family or village tradition. These are the normal stories we normally read about. Now, this type of history is free text type form because you don't have any format to You just tell the person what you know. The first is the free text type, which is the type of text that you can use to tell the person what you know. And very often, these traditions are narrated by The language expert, which in the Akan, they call the Achiame or the Piaru for the king. Chief, you go to the palace, they're usually there to account for some of these histories for you. So it's been a wonderful time. I believe that you can actually try your hands at them, of course. Thank you for your time and subscribe to the channel and recommend it to your friends. Have a nice day.