Oral History—Its Nature and Uses for Educational History

To scholars in pursuit of Africa's past, the written record is a scarce and treasured resource. Among the primitive black cultures on this continent most history is oral history in the truest sense. Knowledge about the past passes by word of mouth from generation to generation, and not only must the scholar capture it but he must also try somehow to filter the significant from the inconsequential as well as the truth from the exaggerated. And yet historians in modern technological societies often face the same problem. In America today events of great importance are more and more receiving less and less documentation. Men can use the telephone or even the airplane to speedily carry their messages or themselves to desired correspondents, and frequently that revealing letter so important to the historian never gets written.