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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Ideology and Oral Traditions: Listening to the Voices 'From Below' |
Author: | Hamilton, C.A. |
Year: | 1987 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 14 |
Pages: | 67-86 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | ideologies oral traditions Education and Oral Traditions History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.2307/3171833 |
Abstract: | This paper addresses the debate over the status of oral traditions as historical sources, with special reference to the use of traditions in the illumination of the precolonial past. It examines the relationship between ideology and oral traditions in nonliterate societies in Africa. The argument is that, far from simply representing the interests of a particular group, oral traditions often reflect ideological struggles between the rulers and ruled in a society. Carefully unpacked and 'deconstructed', oral traditions can provide some evidence of 'voices from below'. Often this evidence can be found, not in the consistency of oral traditions, but in their very contradictions and 'fault lines'. It is suggested that the great value of oral traditions as historical sources lies in precisely that aspect which has been considered to be one of their greatest weaknesses, their fundamentally ideological nature. Notes, ref. |