ORAL TRADITION AND DEARTH OF KNOWLEDGE
– STEVE OBIAKOR
Oral custom, in any other case generally known as oral lore, is a type of communication whereby the transmission, reception and preservation of information, artwork, concepts and cultural materials are performed orally from one era to a different. This oral transmission and preservation may very well be achieved by means of speeches, songs, folktales or tales, ballads, chants, prose or verses. Oral custom was one of many oldest types of transmission of information (schooling) which gave start to oral historical past, oral literature, oral legislation and different physique of information in lots of societies with out having to resort to the writing system. As time lapsed, religions adopted each the writing system and oral custom in transmission of canonical scriptures, rituals, hymns and mythologies from one era to the subsequent.
In Africa, the transmission of oral traditions is completed by mother and father, grandparents, storytellers, musicians and conventional drugs practitioners or diviners.
USES OF ORAL TRADITION
Leisure: Folklores, conventional music, dances and chants are all components of oral custom that are used to entertain company at occasions. The speaking drum is without doubt one of the oldest devices in African conventional music used for creating speech, dance, or sign patterns; oftentimes, the drums had been used to speak info comparable to jokes and chants throughout music displays. Folks tales comparable to tales by moonlight are additionally sources of leisure for each youngsters and adults.
To Educate Morals and Values: African proverbs which type a part of oral custom are used to reveal knowledge and fact. Elders use proverbs to ship necessary messages of inspiration, warning, encouragement and recommendation. Fables and folktales use tales to show numerous ethical classes. There’s all the time this sturdy message in regards to the values and knowledge of a tradition transmitted by means of oral custom. In fables, animals are used as characters to inform legendary tales about individuals who have performed nice issues of their communities thereby inspiring the viewers to be a part of neighborhood constructing. Though, these tales are legendary, they all the time level folks to morals.
Cultural Preservation: A lot of the cultural components had been and are nonetheless being taught by means of oral custom. Such cultural components embody meals, music, dressing, necessary festivals and language. By practising these cultures, the data is transferred to newer generations as continua thereby guaranteeing they don’t go into extinct.
Transmission of Expertise: As data had been handed down from era to era in oral conventional Africa with out the writing system, many expertise had been harnessed and transmitted by mother and father to their youngsters and grandchildren earlier than the arrival of contemporary schooling. Some expertise which had been transmitted by way of oral custom included conventional drugs apply, music, dance, blacksmithing, artwork and craft and so forth.
Supply of Trendy Information: The fashionable society, which is now characterised and dominated by scientific improvement, took its root from oral traditions particularly oral historical past which had been documented as time glided by. The fashionable Historical past, Science, Expertise, Commerce, Politics and Faith are all merchandise of oral historical past which was a part of oral custom. The fashionable society was borne by the will to go looking, to transcend one’s capacities, to innovate, and the style for pure, purposeful intelligence in addition to evidence-based data. The invention of contemporary communication and knowledge instruments comparable to the tv, the radio, the phone, updated improvements are appreciable modifications from the previous which was tremendously facilitated by oral traditions. For example, the Bluetooth wi-fi expertise was named after Harald Bluetooth, the King of Denmark who died in 986 AD. Each the identify of the expertise and its emblem are embedded in Danish etymology.
THE BANE OF ORAL TRADITION IN AFRICA:
Oral custom in Africa has suffered critical abandonment and losses with the arrival of the writing system and western civilization. Under are a number of causes oral custom in Africa is quick shedding relevance in immediately’s world.
Lack of Documentation: The transformation of oral histories, etymologies, legendary tales and so forth into written info particularly within the western world is what we now have immediately because the physique of information in Faith, Artwork, Science and Expertise. The African oral traditions have restricted or no documentations in lots of cultures thereby resulting in the lack of a lot of this info. Historic tales comparable to migration and origin of many tribes in Africa are nonetheless taken with a pinch of salt as an genuine physique of information owing to the truth that many lacking hyperlinks exist within the tales. These lacking appendages couldn’t be traced as a result of they weren’t documented early sufficient. Many expertise, discoveries and practices of historic Africa in Faith, Commerce, Politics, Medication and even Expertise acquired misplaced at some extent the place nobody within the lineage of the custodian of such expertise may proceed the apply. Additionally, when data will not be documented, necessary elements of such physique of information may not be preserved for future improvements.
Secrecy: For individuals who transmit expertise and particular data comparable to in conventional drugs, it has through the years been an idea of secrecy, as a result of a few of these data and expertise will not be documented, they’re, subsequently not patented thereby forcing the custodians of those data to transmit them to their youngsters in secret so as to not lose the patent. When the data of those expertise is saved as secret, it doesn’t permit for verification and additional empirical analysis and improvement therefore, limiting its world acceptance and standardization. Sooner or later, the custodians of those data die with them. This is without doubt one of the biggest issues of African conventional drugs immediately which can’t favorably compete with orthodox drugs.
Lack of Studying Tradition: In 2019, the World Tradition Rating Index rated Africa together with Nigeria very low so far as studying tradition goes. In the identical yr in Nigeria, Nationwide Fee for Mass Literacy and Grownup Training said that over 50million Nigerians (38%) may neither learn nor write. For individuals who can learn and write, for quite a few causes, the will to learn may be very low. This has created an important set again even for the few not too long ago documented oral traditions. This goes to say that such data even when documented, may nonetheless die attributable to lack of curiosity in studying.
Inordinate Need for Overseas Tradition: Many Africans go away behind their wealthy cultural heritage and values to embrace the western tradition. This has led to extra folks embracing imported meals, imported clothes, imported language, imported traditions and imported values. The consequence is that lack of curiosity kills no matter stays of African traditions.
CONCLUSION:
In accordance Mark Twain, “he who doesn’t learn has no benefit over he who can’t learn.” Information is alleged to be energy; data is life because the Holy Ebook says that folks perish for lack of it. It’s pertinent to state that expertise and expertise are nothing with out data. It’s the degree of information one has that determines the extent one can go in growing expertise and skills. As effort is made in the direction of the continual documentations of oral traditions in type of Historical past, Literature, Documentaries, Music et cetera, Africans should look inward to constantly carry again the misplaced glory particularly now that it seems the west has utterly instructed their tales and are actually turning to Africa in quest of untold tales and untapped treasures of African Epistemology.
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