Through the Palace Gates, Chiefs and Chronology: Developing Reliable Dating Structures

Webster, James B.

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Periodical article

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Title:	Through the Palace Gates, Chiefs and Chronology: Developing Reliable Dating Structures
Author:	Webster, James B.
Year:	1984
Periodical:	History in Africa
Volume:	11
Pages:	331-349
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Uganda
Subjects:	genealogy chronology Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171640
Abstract:	This paper sets forth the methodology employed to establish and refine a dating system based on genealogies collected during field research in two areas of Africa, Agago county in Eastern Acholi and Awe district in the Benue Valley. Interview sessions with the elders normally lasted from two to four hours and many topics might be, and usually were, discussed in the course of a single interview. To demonstrate the progression of questioning relative to multiple themes would be beyond the space available or the stamina of the readers. It is proposed rather to isolate the problem of chronology and show how, throughout the fieldwork period, achieving accuracy should be a major preoccupation and of greater or lesser concern in every interview. The regnal list is not collected once or twice or thrice. It forms a problem which continuously protrudes into the interviews, more so in the early stages of fieldwork, less so in the later, but seldom totally ignored. The collection and refinement of a regnal list is not done in one afternoon interview with the elders, which seems to be the impression of some critics of chronology based on royal genealogies and history written from oral sources. Charts, notes, tab.