Constructing The Bakossi-Bakundu Common Lineage: Is Oral Tradition A Subjective Historical Source?

Abstract

The writing of history in Cameroon began with the advent of western education and the development of literacy. Like in most other pre-literate societies historical reconstruction relied heavily on the memory of men. Oral tradition has therefore been hailed as the panacea to the Eurocentric problem of preEuropean African historical emptiness. However, using oral tradition to historicise the origin and migration of certain communities has left conflicting positions which impinge on the trustworthiness of such accounts and of oral traditions as a credible historical source. We use the conflicting oral accounts of the Bakossi-Bakundu common lineage to demonstrate a weakness of oral tradition as a reliable historical source.