Challenges of Studying Written and Oral Sources in Africa

champion of the biggest issues facing Afri give the axe historiographers is the fact that the study of actual African History is relatively new. A large majority of the generators avail fitted argon write from the point of view of Europeans, with an Intended audience of Europeans. L In this egocentric method of reporting narrative, Africans were viewed more than as objects a multitude with a past tho no history. 2 The pen diachronic sources bequeathd by imperialists robbed Africans of their voice.The principal ch anyenge facing African historians Is to find a way to Inject the African voice Into the memoir, and thus roved a more accurate representation of the classical history. This task presents more profound questions. What qualities take up soulfulness an African? Is it sufficient to be a b need mortal living on the continent? Are there levels of ethnicity? Are the descendants of Africans brought to different p machinations of the world In the slave trade Afric ans? Ultimately, who decides who Is African? Equally problematic is the Issue regarding what represents a credible source, every written or vocal exam.Each presents unique challenges that moldiness be addressed in collection to qualify the value of the Information they portend to grant. While the more traditionalistic African diachronic sources are Invariably pr oneness to the problem of European bias, cave paintings offer a source that was born out of a desire of an African ( non a European) to document their experiences. For example, the rock art of lamella Kefir in what is present-day Egypt represents the great unwashed allegedly engaging in the cunning of swimming. 3 This offers historians perhaps the oldest example of source material regarding African history. UT what does this Written source rattling tell African historians? Most importantly, it definitively originates that someone was there, and through scientific dating cuisines, It indicates approximately when th ey were there. This is real, hard usher, which underpins all historical research. 4 This Is not to Infer that there are not problems with the employ of the paintings as a source of usable evidence. The older a source is, it is more likely to be inaccurate. 5 Were the people in the paintings actually swimming, as scientists view?Does that mean that the desert where the cave paintings were found was at one time a land that needed lakes or rivers? Or did the cave painters devise their art from the second-hand memories of others who had traveled to faraway lands? What was the reason they chose to document their experience? Was it graffiti? Was it through for religious reasons? Was it a territorial marking? Archaeological sites are less(prenominal) prevalent in Africa than other parts of the world, which Is problematic In having the office to match this particular site to others.Further, the available archives needed to equation these archaeological finds are fewer in number in A frican regions, and sometimes less accessible delinquent to political reasons. The Information In the African archives that do exist Is often more knotty to translate than traditional archival Information In that most African engages are unwritten, and not written, and nearly impossible to document without the benefit of ad-lib history. 6 How can African historians mitigate these challenges and OFF source?One suggestion is to briskly search for other existing examples of cave paintings and to compare them based on materials, method, content, location, etc. When such comparable examples do not exist, scientists could initiate more archaeological digs, extend communication among scientists to broaden the evidence base, and exert political pressure upon leaders to focus on scientific endeavors, as substantially as the preservation of the archives. Like historians in other parts of the world, African historians face the challenge of deteriorating archives because of damage caused by the elements, water damage, and insects. Traditional written sources such as government documents, appraise records, and newspapers may also be lost due to archival neglect. Historians must conduct several criteria of source criticism to determine each written sources historical value. 8 Regardless of the name on the document, who was the actual author? What was the real purpose of the document? Who was the intended audience? Did the author bring personal motives in reporting it in the manner in which he did? For example, most government documents from Colonial Africa were written by Europeans, with an intended European audience.There is no African voice in this history. Africans were treated like objects,9 and colonial imperialistic authors of written sources believed that they actually were generating history for the branch time?that Africa (and Africans) had no history before their arrival. 10 Another limitation of written documents is that they are created from the po int of view of an observer, and thus produce an opinion that is completely military issueive, and thereby, by definition, are open to other opinions and observations. To address the limitations of written documents, historians often plan of attack to incorporate oral sources in conjunction with written sources in tack together to strengthen historical evidence. Anxiety about flawed written sources dis attri unlesse scholars away from libraries and into t stimulates and villages for historical narrative. 12 The incorporation of oral history into the narrative makes it more evidential and gives the written documents a more verifiable African voice. Relying on written documents from the Colonial period without the incorporation of oral sources, in many cases, produces an inaccurate version of African history.Typically, in the African history provided by Colonial Europeans their culture, norms, and ideology were largely ignored. One of the key methods to avoid (the adventure of den ying Africans a voice in their let history) is to include a peoples own oral traditions and life histories in ethnographically and archaeological break away. 13 Because most African languages in Colonial Africa were oral and not written,14 it is imperative to consider oral sources to bolster the evidence provided by written sources. Oral sources can provide a wealth of historical evidence.For example, Historical linguists use oral sources to accurately track the movement of people across the continent. 15 This evidence of man migration can help explain cultural change, which is important when considering that a lack of concentration of people in a particular area makes a study of their culture less possible. Oral histories offer first-hand accounts of events. These oral histories make grow into oral traditions16 stories passed down from contemporaries to generation, offering us a glimpse of pre-colonial Africa not found in the Euro-centric written documents of imperialists.Oral sources obviously can complement the written, a realization that was for too long lost on most professional order to strengthen written sources to form viscous historical evidence is Jan Vinson, who established that the stories handed down from one generation to another Were as stable and reliable accounts of their past as were the written chronicles and personal narratives (and) that in fact they were of the like genre. 18 In Bananas own words by creating a lifelike setting, (oral tradition) gives evidence about how situations as they were observed, as well as about beliefs uncovering situations. 19 Thus, oral sources, through both shared oral history and oral traditions, have with written sources, form a more credible account of historical occurrences than written sources alone provide. Oral sources, though, are not without their limitations. (H)Astoria can place trust in oral sources yet to the extent that they can be verified by means of external evidence of another kind, such as archaeological, linguistic, or cultural. 20 Oral sources are subject to misinterpretation because of selective or collective memory, rumor, myth, or hearsay. That being said, oral sources subject to these limitations still offer substance, because historians can still study why the subjects believe it happened that way. 22 African historians can mitigate the limitations of oral sources by intrusive for randomness that is valuable, if not as historical evidence, but as schooling that is not readily apparent through the written archive. While attempting to draw evidence from a source on one topic, a historian may gain knowledge of another unintended topic.Ultimately, it is the duty of the historian to subject all written accounts to radical internal and external psychoanalysis to determine authenticity and credibility. If the accounts are thoroughly examined, and the texts can be compared to one another with the tuition contained in oral and other sources, they will re st to yield valuable information on the history of Africa. 23 These things considered if an historian wanted to get an approximation of how many Africans were enslaved, maimed or killed in the occupation of King Leopold in the congo, where would they start? What sources would they utilize, and what would they expect to find?What there information strength they accidentally stumble upon? I propose that a ripe place to start would be to examine any existing hospital documents from 1885-1908, to determine if there is a written record of the number of people treated for loss of limbs. Local censuses (if available), police records, military ledgers, property records, stopping point certificates capacity also prove as fruitful written resources. Additionally, missional records in the region skilly prove to be valuable, especially considering that they would plausibly not require translation, lessening the possibility that any information would be mistranslated.Another possible va luable written source might be records in the Belgian archive, or that of the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. The historian might hope to find information or documents concerning the Congo Reform Association, which might shed some light on the information she seeks. Additionally, research on the Congo Free State propaganda war and the International Association of the Congo might provide valuable useful written sources of evidence of injuries and deaths to those enslaved at that time.One might also be able to glean useful information from historical-based literature, such as Joseph Concords Heart of Darkness, Sir Arthur Cowan Doles The Crime of the Congo, and Bertrand Russell Freedom and Organization. Research on the parties evidence of the atrocities in the region, including Edmund Dine Muriel, Roger Casement and the aforementioned Bertrand Russell. Local museums might contain artwork from the region during Loopholes occupation that captures the outrage, despair and helple ssness of the affected.By speaking to locals, she might learn, through oral tradition, the stories passed down from generation to generation about the occupation. In the unlikely, yet still possible event, that any 106-year-old residents still survive, they would be able to provide first-hand oral history. Other than gaining information regarding the number of enslaved, killed and maimed, she would, in all probability, gain an understanding of the long-term effects of the occupation of Leopold upon the citizens, as well as information of how Loopholes occupation came to an end due to intense internationalistic criticism.Possible obstacles that she might experience In retreat, Leopold may have destroyed written evidence of the atrocities, as well as local artwork or libraries. His regime may have been so strict that any expression, either written or oral, was prohibited and subject to the same penalties as those who refused to work in the mines, or underperformed in their duties, di minishing oral sources. Lets consider that the same historian endeavored to learn the approximate number of the descendants of diasporas Africans who returned to partake in the so-called redeeming of Africa. Where might she begin, and what would she expect to find? What limitations might she bump? What other information might she learn along the way? A good starting mint would be to visit the archives in Liberia and Sierra Leone countries set up as places of African repatriation for freed slaves. There, she could view the juristic records regarding who came back and when they returned, who their family members were, where they lived, as well as their professions. Available Census documents would prove to be invaluable in that regard.Ships manifests would reflect the number of passengers returning to these countries, as well as the number of family members that accompanied them. She could research the founders of both countries, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first president of Liberi a, and Christopher Koru Cole and Osaka Stevens, early leaders of Sierra Leone, to find documents pertaining to the be of returning Africans. She could study historical literature about repatriation, such as Back to Africa the Colonization Movement in Early Africa by timothy Crummier, as well as Black Migration in America a Social Demographic History by Daniel M.Johnson and Rexes R. Campbell. She could also read the whole kit of the men who themselves returned, such as George Washington Williams, Samuel Jay Crotchet, and Henry McNealy Turner. 4 approximately limitations she might experience in her research inconclusive data due to the relative impossibility of proving that they (or their descendants) were indeed originally removed from the continent. Incomplete or inaccurate documentation might also prove to be a stumbling block in attaining this information.Additional research on topics such as the American Colonization Society, and the histories of both Liberia and Sierra Leone would not only provide mathematical data, but also undoubtedly uncover unintended useful information about the achievements and political and religious aims of those who returned, as well as how hey were received. Did they consider themselves more civilized than the native Africans whose descendants had not been removed from the continent?What other the reasons why some Africans did not return, even though they had the opportunity. finished personal interviews of present-day citizens who are descendants of returning freed slaves she could learn of the oral traditions they had developed. She might also learn of the artwork prevalent in these regions, as well as the folklore and literature that the return to Africa produced, and how it differed from that of indigenous Africans. As a recognized academic endeavor, (African history) has emerged only in the last four or five decades. 25 Until recently, African history was written by and for Europeans, and as such, didnt provide a realis tic depiction of the people, the culture, and the overall actual history of the continent, but served more as a record of White encroachment, and functioned as a tool of propaganda to legitimate the civilizing mission of Europeans. By altering traditional methodology and utilizing both written and oral sources, a more accurate take care of African history ND its people can be observed and studied.Beyond the fade of imperialistic African history, there is a real history of the African continent that invites further study, and such an endeavor is necessary in restoring the African voice. If we fail to do so, (w)e run the risk of not only denying people a voice in the reconstruction of their own history, but offending and demeaning indigenous cultures when we use them as a baby-sit for the past without recognizing not only their changing past but their active involvement in changing and/or maintaining their identities and history in the present. 26