On the Indispensable Role of Oral Traditions in Historiographical Reconstruction of East African Colonial History

This paper sheds light on the fallacies and deficiencies underlying historicist methodology in the field of historiography. Through a case study of the canon of East African colonial history it is demonstrated that historicists methodology, which takes written documentation as the prime source of historical evidence, fails to adequately reconstruct a truthful, multifaceted and inclusive picture of East African colonial history as much of East African history is transmitted orally rather than in print. The historicists' erroneous claim to objectivity, scientific predictability and universal truths based on findings in written primary sources, is deconstructed by use of an alternative historiographical methodology: New Historicism. This paper shows how oral sources can be adequately historicised through a New Historicist lens, thus granting more complete narratives of East African colonial history. In short, it will be argued that the existing documentation of East African colonial...Show moreThis paper sheds light on the fallacies and deficiencies underlying historicist methodology in the field of historiography. Through a case study of the canon of East African colonial history it is demonstrated that historicists methodology, which takes written documentation as the prime source of historical evidence, fails to adequately reconstruct a truthful, multifaceted and inclusive picture of East African colonial history as much of East African history is transmitted orally rather than in print. The historicists' erroneous claim to objectivity, scientific predictability and universal truths based on findings in written primary sources, is deconstructed by use of an alternative historiographical methodology: New Historicism. This paper shows how oral sources can be adequately historicised through a New Historicist lens, thus granting more complete narratives of East African colonial history. In short, it will be argued that the existing documentation of East African colonial history fails to adequately historicise the narratives of local subjectivities (the actual people who experienced colonial oppression) due to Eurocentric overemphasis on the appropriation of written sources rather than incorporating and establishing the value of the many ‘local subjective narratives’ preserved in oral traditions.Show less

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On the Indispensable Role of Oral Traditions in Historiographical Reconstruction of East African Colonial History