The book provides a critical coverage of histories of traditional societies by making oral tradition as an important source of history. It provides vivid description of the history of traditional African societies and how oral tradition can become a significant source of history.The author of the book, Jan Vansina, was the professor of history and anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he taught several generations of students and laid a foundational ground for the research in African history. Having been elected to the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in the year 1983, he became the first researcher to be appointed as the distinguished Africanist in the United States after obtaining his doctorate in history from Catholic University of Leuven. While there are many books in history, the book Oral Tradition as History provides a clear view and vivid description of African history and utilizes a unique methodology to describe oral tradition as a source of history making it one of the best historical books in the world.
The book provides a clear analysis and description of the African traditional history using a unique method that makes the story appeals to the reader. The book has seven chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. The author gives a clear description of the historical processes that took place in the traditional societies by taking a keen look into their ways of communicating, perceptions, beliefs and culture. Even as the author emphasizes on the importance of oral tradition in history, he goes ahead to provide a comprehensive meaning of oral tradition from the historical point of view. The main area of focus for the author is to give an assessment of the significance of oral tradition in history, an area that other historians have always ignored while writing about history. The author argues that what people need to do is to focus on a wider aspect of tradition rather than just concentrating on the political class and capitalism while studying history. He further notes that texts form part of the culture of the societies because the way they are expressed is based on the language and a culture that is well understood by the society itself. Therefore, culture remains to be a significant aspect in shaping the messages as well as the interpretation of the received messages. In overall, Jan provides a clear understanding of oral tradition as a source of history through the provision of detailed analysis of the African societies.
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Chapter one of the books provides the setting where oral tradition is being given a broader view by the author. In the society, there are processes which Jan defines as a means of passing messages either verbally or using other methods. Messages are a product of communication because they form the way people communicate. Interpretation of the messages may however differ depending on the culture which has been identified to play a key role in the communication in the society. Here, the author provides a clear description message transmission which goes to previous forms. The interpretations for the messages may vary especially when they are repeated. This provides crucial information to the historians on understanding oral tradition as a source of history. In chapter one part 3, Jan defines oral tradition as “verbal messages which are reported statements from the past beyond the present generation.” This definition gives a clear analysis to the historians that oral statements form part of the messages that people use to communicate. Jan describes the importance of understanding what a message means because historians need to interpret and appreciate various forms of images. At the same time, messages have internal structures which historians must interpret and understand because this is the initial step to communicating. This is important to historians because of the precise description of the way to interpret texts and understand oral tradition in the historical perspectives. Communication is also affected by the social factors because the messages in the oral tradition usually have a social relation. This is important to the reader because it allows for an understanding of messages in a social setting in the society. We further understand that culture has a role in how messages are expressed and this gives important knowledge on the relationship between culture and communication in the traditional societies.
In conclusion, the book, “Oral Tradition as History” by Vansina is useful to the historians and anthropologists because of its vivid description of the inner structure of the oral tradition as a source of history and the use of unique style which tackles parts of the tradition that other authors have ignored in the past. When we fail to understand oral tradition, it would be difficult for historians to study and understand the previous lives of people in many parts of the globe. While many traditions have been written, they tend to only focus on the history of the economy, political class and capitalists in the society but ignore the inner structure of the societies. However, the book by Jan provides an in-depth and inside understanding of the society by focusing on oral tradition as history. All the historians, anthropologists and even scholars can, therefore, rely on the book as a potential source of oral material because it plays a prominent and inner role in the history of the African tradition.
