+ oral tradition, oral history, & the uw-madison oral history project iwu research seminar 7...

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+ Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

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+ Jan Vansina in Living with Africa “In a burst of insight, half-forgotten dirges such as Laxis fibris, ‘With loosened strings,’ or A solis ortu, ‘Whence the sun rises,’ surged through my mind. Those Bushong poems were just like these medieval dirges. The were texts, and hence just as amenable to the canons of historical method. Once one could assess the value of a tradition, it could be used as a source like any other: one could then use such poems to reconstruct aspects at least of a ‘real’ Kuba history.”

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Page 1: + Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

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Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project

IWU Research Seminar7 October 2015

Page 2: + Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

+Jan Vansina in Living with Africa[After describing the scene of an interview with one of his Bushong informants—Mbop Louis] in Kuba country, then in Belgian Congo]

“They were discussing genesis“Suddenly Mbop interrupted the leisurely pace of his speech and exclaimed rhetorically as he addres-sed me, the stranger: ‘We too we know the past, because we carry our newspapers in our heads.’ He recited as proof a number of short poems. This one was the first:Mbe lashey bakong If I quarrel with the KongoMbe lanan ibamboon If I fight with the MboonKolakal adia ashey mubaan I will not eat their salt.

Page 3: + Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

+Jan Vansina in Living with Africa“In a burst of insight, half-forgotten dirges such as Laxis fibris, ‘With loosened strings,’ or A solis ortu, ‘Whence the sun rises,’ surged through my mind. Those Bushong poems were just like these medieval dirges. The were texts, and hence just as amenable to the canons of historical method. Once one could assess the value of a tradition, it could be used as a source like any other: one could then use such poems to reconstruct aspects at least of a ‘real’ Kuba history.”

Page 4: + Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

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Jan Vansina’s Oral Tradition as Historypublished first in 1961, then revised in 1985

Page 5: + Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

+Oral Tradition and Oral History?

Stories handed down from generation to generation by classes of oral historians in societies characterized by orality.

Stories about the imposition of Middle Eastern rule by the sultan of Kilwa

Criticism and Reclamation: Henige, Luise White, Neil Kodesh

Life-stories related orally by informants about their own time, place, and experiences.

Stories recorded by the WPA’s Federal Writers’ Project (1936-38)

Criticism? Life stories and oral history as a discipline

Oral Tradition Oral History

Page 6: + Oral Tradition, Oral History, & the UW-Madison Oral History Project IWU Research Seminar 7 October 2015

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University of Wisconsin Oral History Program

Troy Reeves, director