Читать книгу Assemblage of African History - Micqel Le Roux - Страница 5

It is imperative to understand the important value of evidence generated through different mediums to support historical findings. Due to cultural and technological differences, certain sources of history are documented in the pre-colonial era of Africa. Oral tradition is popular in African history, hence tribal stories and dances would be the pinnacle of evidence of the history of Africa. Even though there are different sources, like rock paintings, grazing patterns, archaeological findings like the “Greate Zimbabwe”- ruins and more, oral tradition finds itself amidst these sources to prove to be a definite source to be attained and scholastically studied. In the following paragraphs, different methods will be studied, to see what method could be more effective when studying pre-colonial African History.

According to colonialists, African history wasn’t inferior to western history and followed a functionalistic school of thought and some scholars correlated an anthological approach. History irrespective of personal perspective and recording still has viable sources that can be used to re-create scenarios and assist to build formidable, reliable evidence to add value to African History. One of those methods is an oral tradition. A few other methods that can be used to reconstruct history are Archaeology and linguistics. There are other sources, like black African music, where the history of African-American citizens traces generational songs as a means of methodology to reconstruct a Historical perspective.

Archaeology is a credible source and method that we can take into account to build or reconstruct history from Africa. Archaeology can be seen as a method of study in the scientific realm, that view historic or prehistoric humans and their cultures through analyzing the artefacts found, inscriptions, and the study of any other remains. Historical development of African culture and their structural progression is an example of archaeological findings in Africa. A few practical examples include obelisks found in the Ethiopian corridor, the Egyptian Pyramids, the excavations of Great Zimbabwe, and the rock art(paintings) in the Western Cape, South Africa. Archaeology offers many advantages and some disadvantages. Advantages offered, including that it can take us back to an earlier time of history. It can give us an indication as to how humans lived back then and their lifestyle. Another advantage it can bring is an indication of progression and change that happen in certain regions. It should be noted that archaeological findings can be misinterpreted and analyzed, and should therefore be used with caution and understanding as a means for any substantiation, as it can be seen as a double edge sword. Yet, archaeology provides fundamental evidence, but as a historian, one should always entertain a notion and not just merely accept it. Rather investigate and inspect the findings following the scientific method.

Another credible source or method one can apply to reconstruct African history is by analyzing and studying linguistics. There are more than 400 Bantu Languages in Africa and some of them are closely relatable. This in return could guide historians on a path of cultural tracing and discovering. To trace certain root words of different clans and to study the links it could form between ancestral tribes can be noteworthy. Professor Vansina (1990) has reconstructed the history of more than 400 decentralized groups of societies in Africa using Linguistic analyses. With these observations, the professor could gather information on local historical groups of societies and identify different aspects of their way of life. This includes political, spiritual, and economical organizations. Tracing loan words could be a good example of tracking a line between different languages.

There are however some disadvantages by utilizing linguistics and sometimes be counter-intuitive. One of them is oversimplifying, especially within the context of the classification of the Bantu languages and that there is a high possibility of errors when simplistic measures are applied by historians, hence creating misconceptions and false information.

The next method entails oral tradition. When referring to oral tradition, African History comes to mind. Many African histories come from oral tradition. By definition oral tradition could be seen as society’s historical and cultural customs that are given to the next generations through verbal instruction and not utilizing a written medium. Good examples of this could be stories that are told by parents to their children or cultural gatherings where chieftains would discuss traditions. Another example could be the tradition of circumcision by the isiXhosa young males to become men. Here the integration of oral and tradition integrate and manifest itself as part of the culture. Oral tradition can interplay and manifest itself inside of tradition, through generational tradition. There are a few fundamental problems with some credibility of oral tradition. They are divided into three groups namely Myths of origin, Clichés, and feedback. [10] In these categories, historians could find errors in the re-interpreting of historical findings.

A clear example could be feedback from an isiXhosa group that the male circumcision could be part of the traditions of the 10 lost tribes of Israel and that the ancestry trace back to them (note; this is an example of misconception and should not be acknowledged). This is merely an example of how easily someone can misinterpret information or make unsubstantiated conclusions, but rather speculating and using that information as substantiated evidence. Thus, it is important to look at oral tradition with respect and a critical eye, hence testing this evidence against different methods and in-depth research, furthermore applying the scientific method.

In conclusion, we can see that every method has its advantages and disadvantages. Therefore oral tradition has merit in reconstructing the history of pre-colonial Africa, but only to some extent. There should be an empirical and holistically combined approach (utilizing archaeology and linguistics etc.) as evidence to substantiate any claims. Therefore thorough investigations should be the pinnacle means of operation and information retrieval. Oral tradition could be seen as an insightful reconstruction tool and should be viewed critically. If historians apply necessary prompts and procedure methods and avoid errors like that of clichés and myths of origin the psychology of oral tradition could be proven useful and insightful to build a more detailed picture of ancient Africa.