Documenting African oral histories

James Pritchett is director of MSU's African Studies Centre.Michigan State University researchers will use a USD750,000 federal grant to collect oral narratives from African citizens who often are left out of the official written record.

With the funding from the U.S. Department of Education, MSU will partner with African scholars to collect and digitise life histories, folklore and songs from men and women. The project expects to collect material in as many as 16 African languages. Twenty collections of oral narratives will be provided free through MSU’s renowned digital library known as MATRIX: The Centre for Humane, Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online.

By preserving the stories of everyday African citizens, the initiative will help document indigenous knowledge and democratise history, project leaders say.

“Rather than simply accelerating the flow of African cultural knowledge to the west, as is far too often the case, this digitisation project will provide African scholars shared access to the intellectual production of their own continent in ways that have not been technologically nor economically possible,” said James Pritchett, director of MSU’s African Studies Centre.

Over a four-year period, the African Oral Narratives project will collect information from Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania. The audio and video resources will be in the languages of Akan (Twi), Wolof, Bamanakan (Mandinka), Igbo, Fula (Pulaar), Farefare, Amharic, Oromo, Swahili, Zigula, Chewa, Zulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Tswana, Afrikaans and English.

Collaborating on the project are MSU’s MATRIX, Department of History and African Studies Centre in partnership with scholars at Addis Ababa University, University of Ghana, University of Malawi, South African History Association, United Nations, Indiana University and Oakland University.

Three faculty members from MSU's African history graduate program – ranked third in the nation by U.S. News and World Report – will participate in the project: Nwando Achebe, Peter Alegi and Laura Fair.

“The new material will add to MSU’s resources, supporting U.S. scholars who are teaching about Africa in schools, community colleges and four-year institutions,” added David Wiley, MSU professor of sociology and African studies. “It also will add to the resources for teaching African languages at MSU and across the nation.”