Organizations in Africa and Elsewhere / Les Organismes en Afrique et ailleursAuthor(s): Brian G. McIntoshSource: Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 1,No. 1 (Mar., 1967), pp. 82-83Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/483981 .

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LE JOURNAL CANADIEN DES ETUDES AFRICAINES

NOTES: ORGANIZATIONS IN AFRICA AND ELSEWHERE

LES NOTES: LES ORGANISMES EN AFRIQUE ET AILLEURS

TRADITION AND TESTIMONY IN ORAL RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NAIROBI

The Department of History at the University College Nairobi has introduced a research project in African history. The idea for such a project was suggested in February, 1966, and by June the first researchers were ready to enter the field.

The researchers in this project are the second and third year under- graduate students. They choose a topic, receive instruction in method, and go out during the vacations to record oral tradition and testimony in their home areas in East and Central Africa.

Students are trained to make a full record of questions and answers during an oral interview. As a supplement to this, they summarise particulars about themselves, about the background and career of the witness, and about the time, date, place, conduct and atmosphere of the interview. In this way it is possible to make an objective analysis of the tradition and testimony, and to make of each recorded oral interview a historical document in its own right which can be used and referred to in the normal way in the writing of history.

The topics chosen by student researchers vary from studies of systems and institutions in tribal societies to pre-independence politics. Studies are in progress amongst the Luo, Baluhya, Elgeyo, Nandi, Embu, Kipsigis, Kikuyu, Pokomo and Burji (Galla). Biographies are being compiled of such evangelists as Sira Dongo and David Otieno, of politicians such as I.E. Nathoo and S.W. Kulubya, and of tribal heroes such as Waiyaki, Karure, Cege Kibiru and Mwangeka. Research into independent church movements is popular and is being carried out in Nyanza, Kikuyu, Ukamba and Barotseland. Zambian students tend to favour political parties and are investigating the origins and growth of the African National Congress, the United National Independence Party, the People's Democratic Congress, and, as an associated subject, Lawrence Katilungu and the Mining Trade Union. Finally, in this brief selection of research topics, a student from Ngao is working on a co-operative and political move- ment which began during World War II and which was called the Young Buu Association.

The search for documentary material in private hands and in local insti- tutions is another main part of the project's work. Amongst a large number of individual pieces deposited with the project, some of the most valuable collections are as follows: a set of Kenya Indian Congress pamphlets and papers, 1914-1965; copies of early land treaties and correspondence from the offices of Smith Mackenzie & Co. Ltd., several files on the Young Bua Association; documents on the Carrier Corps and the "Porters' Claim", 1914- 1933; miscellaneous documents on independent churches and political parties; and several old books in tribal languages.

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THE CANADIAN JOURNAL OF AFRICAN STUDIES

Oral and written documents are all deposited in the Department's archives. The purpose of the archives is to provide material for the study, teaching, research and publication needs of the College, and to provide material of interest to accredited scholars of other Universities.

The project is still in its first year. The students' final task will be to write articles based upon their research, the best of which will be published as a collection or as occasional papers through the Historical Association of Kenya.

December, 1966 Brian G. McIntosh, Department of History,

University College Nairobi.

RHODES HOUSE LIBRARY

In 1966, Mr. Louis B. Frewer, Superintendent of Rhodes House Library, Oxford, undertook a tour of a number of African Studies Programmes at major American universities.

A short report upon the development of African s'tudies in the United States, with a brief description of research facilities available, may be obtained upon application to the Superintendent, Rhodes House Library, Oxford, England.

December, 1966.

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