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

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]

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

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

  2. 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: MbelasheybakongIf I quarrel with the Kongo Mbelananibamboon If I fight with the Mboon Kolakaladiaasheymubaan I will not eat their salt.

  3. Jan Vansina in Living with Africa “In a burst of insight, half-forgotten dirges such as Laxisfibris, ‘With loosened strings,’ or A solisortu, ‘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.”

  4. Jan Vansina’sOral Tradition as Historypublished first in 1961, then revised in 1985

  5. Oral Tradition and Oral History? Oral Tradition 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

  6. University of Wisconsin Oral History Program Troy Reeves, director

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