“Features of the African memory” “In societies where everything hinges on the transmitted word, memory is a highly developed faculty. For example, there are illiterate traders who engage in vast business transactions, who lend sums of money to innumerable people and borrow from others, and who keep absolutely accurate accounts in their heads of all the movements of goods and money without the slightest mistake. One of the features of verbal memory is its ability to restore a narrative in its entirety, from beginning to end, exactly as it was received. In the account of the Tukuloor wars, we are told what embroidered robe (bubu) the great hero Oumarel Samba Dondo wore at a particular battle, who his groom was and what became of him, what the name of his horse was and what became of it. In oral narrative, there are no insignificant details, and that is why everything is recounted without any omission or else the narrator refrains from telling the story altogether, by saying: If you havent time to listen to me. I’ll tell the story some other day.’” “This is an enormous advantage for the historian, since both internal and external criticism can rely on certain details to bear out or invalidate a text. To take the tale of Thianaba, the mythical Fula serpent, for example, the legend traces its adventures and migration through the Sudanic savannah. In about 1921, Belime, the engineer in charge of building the Sansanding dam was curious enough to follow the trail of the geographical clues given in the legend and discovered to his surprise that he was following the former bed of the river Niger.” The living tradition By Amadou Hampate Ba General History of Africa Volume I: Methodology and African PreHistory Edited by J. Ki-Zerbo Pages 166-203 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 15:36:33 +0000
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