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Oral tradition Oral traditions are a body of social, economic, political, religious and demographic experiences of a human group, preserved and transmitted from generation to generation by word of mouth. These testimonies of the past are never in their final form until they have undergone some rigorous scientific refinement. This means that oral traditional data if not methodically gathered and analyzed cannot be a valid source of history. Indeed, oral traditions are a combination of chaff and grains. The chaff arises from errors of omission and commission. The grains represent the “truths ” that remain after the “winnowing”. But as an important communication strategy in most African societies up to now, oral traditions cannot be totally jettisoned simply because they have some weaknesses. Oral tradition can be defined as testimony transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to another. Here the information is obtained by talking and listening to people with historical information especially elderss. The message transmitted orally, were preserved by memory. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ORAL TRADITION Oral history helps round out the story of the past. Oral history provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by augmenting the information provided by public records, statistical data, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, and other historical materials. Eyewitnesses to events contribute various viewpoints and perspectives that fill in the gaps in documented history, sometimes correcting or even contradicting the written record. Interviewers are able to ask questions left out of other records and to interview people whose stories have been untold or forgotten. At times, an interview may serve as the only source of infor-mation available about a certain place, event, or person. Oral history helps us understand how individuals and communities experi-enced the forces of history. Just think of the breadth and width of history that today’s students have to learn! Traditional history courses in high school and college usually touch only on the major events of the past, covering the fundamentals of who, what, when, where, why, and so what. Oral history brings depth to our understanding of the past by carrying us into experi-ence at an individual level. Thoughtful, personal answers to questions like What did you do in the war? reveal the ways decisions made by the movers and shakers of the day changed the lives of ordinary people and their families and com-munities. Oral history teaches us what has changed and what has stayed the same over time. Change is obvious to the eye, but oral history allows people to express the personal consequences of change, from the simple things of life—wood stove to microwave, dial phone to cell phone, phonograph to I-Pod—to the more com-plex—Yellow Dog Democrat to Moral Majority, local production to global outsourcing, country living to suburban sprawl. During interviews, narrators may also reflect on ways their lives remained the same in spite of change, particu-larly in the area of values, traditions, and beliefs. Oral history preserves for future generations a sound portrait of who we are in the present and what we remember about the past. Inevitably, future generations will view and judge today’s generation through the lens of their own experiences in their own time. The story of the past is continually revised in the light of new interpretations. Oral history enables people to share their stories in their own words, with their own voices, through their own understanding of what happened and why. With careful attention to preserving our sound recordings, the voices of our narrators will endure to speak for them when they are gone. By complicating the story with individual experience, oral histories will help fu-ture historians avoid sweeping generalizations that stereotype people, engender prejudice, and overlook important variables in the historical context. • It can be given anywhere and any time by adult who have some historical facts • It is less expensive compared to other source of historical information such as books and museums. this is because it does not need selling and buying of information • It does not need a person to know how to read and write • It is possible to ask questions to the oral informant so as to in-depth information The following are disadvantages of oral traditions • Oral tradition does not go very far in the past. the transmission of information depend on the power of memories of successive generations • Oral tradition does not maintain the same value of the oral history; instead the values keeps on changing as time goes • Oral tradition may be biased. This is possible because of nature of transmission itself. oral transmission is full of exaggeration, creativity and sometimes the informant may talk of good things only. TYPOLOGIES OF ORAL TRADITIONAL SOURCES Two major classifications of oral tradition will suffice for our attention; communications that present news and secondly, communication which represents an interpretation of existing situations. The essence of news is to give information about something that happened not long ago and is not known to one’s audience. The news must be of some interest and often possess some sensational value. The main point is that such communication does not concern the past, but rather the present and imply a future. Such information comes from eyewitnesses, hearsay or internal experience such as visions, dreams or hallucinations are quite common perception. In oral societies, such occurrences where and are frequent. FORMS OF ORAL TRADITION The oral tradition is a very broad category of cultural phenomenon which comes in many forms and serves a variety of functions. There are four broad forms of oral tradition: myth, legend, song and popular history. All these forms fall under the generic heading of folklore, but this term is so broadly applicable, including nearly all expensive aspects of culture. MYTH: Myth is sacred truth, and is hedged about with taboos against its improper use. The form and content of myth are carefully preserved and the recitation of the sacred narrative is strictly controlled. In most instances the one who recites the myth is a priest or other privileged functionary to whom the sacred history has been entrusted. Safeguards against error or lapse of memory are provided in form of a number of mnemonic (memory-assisting) devices. The speaker recites the sacred words within hearing of a select audience, including those who will inherit his office, or who will perform for him if he incapacitated. The myth is recited only at an appointed time, usually during a calendrical ritual. The spot on which the speaker stands, the direction he faces, and the way in which he dressed or accoutered may have significance to the events he is recounting. Folktales: They are generally told at appointed time; but investigation will reveal that these are times of enforced leisure, or times when sharing in a bit of fantasy will not interfere with completion of tasks necessary to the promotion of the general welfare. But the most important distinction the researcher much recognizes that whereas the veracity of myth is indisputable, and its recitation may be an integral part of those rituals enacted to ensure the smooth maintenance of society, it is totally inconsequential whether or not the folktale is believed; its principal purpose is entertainment. Myth is privileged information; folktales are public property. Finally, the content of folktales appears to receive authentication by the presence of gods or heroes, it is the episodes, strategies employed by the actors, and the moral lessons that they teach, that are important, and not the historical veracity of the details. Moreover, these episodes, strategies, and moral lesson tend to become standardized, so that, by the substitution of recognizable personnel, and by adaption of events to the appropriate ecological setting, they can speak to all people at all time. Folktale is rarely a reliable source of primary data for the historiographer in Africa LEGEND: This is a specific type of historical narrative that speaks of time since „the beginning‟, after the original culture- founders had departed their earthly lives to assume positions of spiritual advisers, leaving the actual running of society in human control. The whole account derives some authentication by its association with personages, events, or places whose historicity is vouched for in other traditions, but the details of the events described are of questionable historical veracity. Like myth, it deals with real personage (not animals) and real places; like folktale, it lacks the details of legend are subject to rational questioning, even by those to whom the account has special significance. Legend is especially subject to certain processes of alteration and embellishment, which will be discussed shortly. But, by definition, legend has some basis in actual fact, either in terms of its broad framework or by reference to specific names, events and places. SONG: This category includes poetry, epic, chant, and other verse forms which are not subject to restrictions of the sort which govern myth. Songs are records of the times, but they can be more. In most instances their composers are relatively free to include statements of social criticism. From such sentiments the historian can reconstruct at least fragmentary pictures of the actual social conditions of the people perceptions and responses to these conditions. Thus song can provide historian with the opportunity to bring to historical writing vitality, an aliveness that is so often lacking in accounts deriving from more conservative sources. Song is an often-used vehicle for recording certain special events, such as memorable battles, successful hunts, and the accomplishments of important individuals. Some songs are quite old, especially those composed in praise of royal personages, warrior-heroes, etc. POPULAR HISTORY: History has the effect of validating behaviour and perception of the world and on e‟s place in it . There exists, therefore, a broad and rather amorphous realm of historical tradition which we labeled „popular history‟. It is often called simply „tradition‟ by his torians and anthropologists, but this term is inadequate as it fails to distinguish this form from those more structured and formalized traditions. Popular history derives in part from selected elements in myth, legend, and song and in part from current events. It also includes family and tribal traditional histories which in turn assert beliefs about descent, succession to office of kings or chiefs, migrations, battles etc. In the preliterate African communities, the making and transmission of tradition was not the work of historians as in modern time.