HI 368 Oral sources used in history.

QUESTIONS.

v  Identification of and discussion on the types of oral sources used, how were the  oral  sources used, problems or challenges faced as well as appreciation of any outstanding achievement.

v  Providing a general overview on the extent to which oral sources have shaped the book.

The work is discussed in the following aspects

Ø  Identification and discussion on the types of oral sources used.

Ø  How were the oral sources identified used.

Ø  Problems or challenges faced the author.

Ø  Appreciation of any outstanding achievements.

Ø  General overview on the extent to which oral sources have shaped the book.

A political history of the pare 1500-1900 was written by Professor Isaria N. Kimambo who was a senior professor in history department at the university of Dar es Salaam, this book was published in 1969 by East African publishing House, Kenya.

Professor Kimambo visited and stayed in pare region for a long period since July 1965 to June 1966. He settled at Usangi in the southern pare where he learnt pare language assisted by his wife Mary Kimambo who was familiar with the language. He later won the confidence of his informant as a result he was able to collect information from people of different ages and write this book to show the history of pare societies through the use of oral information he collected from this area. In his book Professor Kimambo had almost use oral information than written and other sources in writing this book.

Identification of oral sources used:

Professor Kimambo used both Eye witness account and Oral tradition which made  his work to be so accurate and attractive to other historian who were in need to deal with reconstruction of African History through the use of oral sources.

Eye witness account

Refer to oral information given by a person who witnessed or participated on the event. Here there is eye witness account to on German expedition in the hinterlands through the caravan of Mazinde, Gonja, Kisiwani, lake Jipe before reaching to Kilimanjaro land, pg195. This was used to show the evidence on the expedition of German military to the hinterlands of Pangani toward Kilimanjaro.

Oral tradition

Refer to testimony transmitted from one generation to another generation or serious of historical information transmitted oral from one generation to another, there are four types of oral tradition which are Poems, Formulae, Epic poem and Narratives. In this book “A political History of the Pare”, the following are the oral traditions used by the author:

            Poem,  refer to tradition learned by heart. Poems follow a certain rule of language. This has been applied by Kimambo to show the people of pare were praise their worries during the victory of the war. Example

“Observe, observe

The Mengwe Mountain is standing still

And he who climbs it is the owner of cattle

See what we have! (Restoring soldiers)” pg 59

             Formulae, they are like poem but do not follow any language rules or they are not bound by rules of compositions example of formulae are riddles, Genealogies and tradition prayers.

Genealogies; a list of clans in the pare society has been used by the author in different parts example genealogy has been used in pg 168 which goes to twelve generation, the group also mentioned a ruler called Mpishiyakua who seems to have been the third ruler since the arrival of the Wamjema into the Mang’a areas. This was used to show the chronology of events of oral information. Also used in pg 31, 230-234,

            Epic Poems, they are similar to normal poems but portray a heroic character. There of two types: legends and feebles. The author used legends in some parts of his book example “the period preceding the sixteenth generation back can therefore be considered as a legendary period in which historical events are clothed in elaborate myths and in which the genealogies are often telescoped”, pg31. Also has been shown in pg 34, the myth about the crossing of water by magical power which is commonly to people living near lakes, and rivers, the story of the Jipe.

            Narrative, these are coherent account of the past these account are handed down over generations. This has almost been used in the whole book to express the history of this pare societies. Example the author used this in showing the conflict between the Wambuga and Wambaga as the enemies of the South pare and the German intervention. pg 192.

            Like other oral sources work also kimambo faced a lot of problem in both during collection and interpretation or evaluation of oral information from informant such problems are as follows

Language problem, this faced professor Kimambo in his research. For example to Master the clan’s dialects in the pare country was not an easy task since there is many and different pare language communities so it became a problem to Kimambo’s research especially in making interpretation of the information had collected. This was because the pare tribes had many dialects, for example in pg 235

Mshitu dialect	Chasu dialect	Kigweno dialect	English language
Miluwe	Meso	Miso	Eyes
Tafua	Fua	Mbua	Nose
Kimumbu	Momo	Mumu	Mouth
Lengo	Mpombe	Mringa	Water

            Dating, the establishment of chronology which is the most challenge face the use of oral sources again hinder the use of absolute time of a certain event, so this became a problem/challenge since he failed to find reliable method of converting these generation into year decided to use generation as a way of dating historical events to him generation consisting 30 years, pgxii.

Contradiction between oral sources and other sources, specifically disagreement happed between oral sources and written sources, for example on the name of Karia with the tradition of Mfumwa but also Karia called Naguru show that the written account differs from the traditional sources, pg 203, contradiction in the genealogy of the Sambaa dynasty in pare region, also there is condition between oral information and archeology where the informant they told him on the past settlement of wagalla but archeology found there is no such a thing in these late days,pg28.

Lack of sufficient information by some informant, for example in pg 197, some informants failed to explain what he or she had witnessed. Also in pg 62-66 the informants lacked information in a sense that they could fail to remember well the time of occurrence of different events, hence led the researcher to have not exactly time which result to the estimation of time. For example he interviewed very old people especially of age 80 and above who could not remember the events properly. Also a researcher show that Mtindi had already been reported by the German officer at Mazinde in 1892 as a trouble maker and had been fined for it, Although no details about this trouble are known, it is unlikely that Mtindi was actually opposing German ruler, pg 218.

            Dispite af all challenges Professor Kimambo has achieved in writing this book through the use of oral sources he collected from the field. The following are some of the appreciation of any outstanding achievements of this book.

            Through the use of oral sources also Kimambo was able to refute the diffusion theory and conquest theory which attribute the development take place in Africa to the hamites migration by examining the oral sources among pare society and showed that political development on Africa took place independently.

            He achieved in the use of both oral and written sources as well as he draw his conclusion from different sources which are shown in his work for instance the use of footnotes to the large extent professor Kimambo achieved to use footnotes in the whole book examples through the use writing record of H. N. Chittick and Stevin Faireman has improve this work.

            Has able to reconstruct history of East Africa using pare as the case study of the other societies that are found in this part of East Africa and their effort in generating their own development, by using oral methodology to reconstruct

            He succeeded to show chronology in analyzing the events and present a good organization of his work, where by chapters is arranged from the first chapter to the last one.

Also through his work and achievements in using oral sources has motivated other ordinary historian to conduct the research as he did, because his work became accepted worldwide by historians.

A general over view on the extent to which oral sources have shaped the book.

            For a long period of time history was said to be constructed and even been reconstructed by the presence of written source within the societies, in so doing the society with no written sources was regarded as illiterate society and totally such society had no any history of their own. Such Eurocentric view was been used by European to justify their superiority as well to refute the development of independent African history and attribute it with the history of diffusion and conquest theory. Such idea was been put forward earliest idea known as “Nile valley civilization hypothesis” later scholars such as C.G. Seligman came up with the “civilization of Africa was the civilization of Hamites” also Oliver and J.D Fage with the idea of “Sudanic Civilization hypothesis”, pg 1-3. All of these ideas refute the independent development of African history as well as the uses of oral sources in the reconstruction of African history.

            I.N. Kimambo had successful in shaping the book by using oral sources both oral tradition and eye witness accounts to take pare as a case study which represents other remaining parts of East Africa, furthermore in this book he was able to show that the development of pare societies was independent from the idea of diffusion but he did not reject the diffusion theory which were for the improving the initiative made by the indigenous, “yet the analysis of their new ideas in the six chapter indicated not only that their political system was based on what has already been achieved  by the Wabwambo”, (pg.6)