ON CULTURAL DOCUMENTATION IN AFRICA

On Cultural Documentation in Africa

In this engagement I would like to closely look at the issue of documentation in African cultures. When I say documentation here, I refer to the whole gamut of media, tools and methods used intrinsically to record  cultures and realities. This ranges from artifacts to buildings to literature.  

History they say is a narrative couched in the subjective view of the narrator. And he narrates what he sees through 'his' lense to narrate the story. All over the world we have narratives that  have more or less been accepted as 'history' of peoples. But we may well ask how authentic are these narratives? Are there missing links?  

Indeed Africa has been a victim of plunder and rape as much from foreigners as from her progeny.   From artifacts to people, from the Cape to the Horn and the vast stretch westwards across the Sahara touching the banks of the North Atlantic, Africa's essence has continually been pilfered. Quite unsurprisingly, Africa languishes at the centre of the globe and as the supposed birthplace of humans, with everyone taking what he wants and making no effort to nurture old Mama Africa.  

It will also therefore be no suprise that Africa has a comparatively low number of remains that stretch back across the eons of human existence due to the fact that they have continually been wiped out of existence or appropriated as belonging to anyone but Africans.   From the internecine to the visiting foreigners, everything seems to be unfavourable to the documentation of the existing realities that were on ground. But then we may well ask how different were Africa's experiences compared to India, China, the lands of the indigenous Americas, amongst others? All suffered the same as Africa, yet there seems to be a more comprehensive documentation of the cultures that are rooted there, with records going back several eras being in existence today.  

It then seems that maybe in Africa, documentation was a victim of scorched-earth policy that obliterated any trace of a conquered people and there didn't seem to be much policy of assimilation that would have aided synergetic building upon gains that were met on ground. For instance what happened to the comparatively recent Maguzawa documentation about Bori and Tsubbu and its related paraphernalia in Hausaland being that these were the traditions that preceded the Islamic culture that supplanted it.  

Well another plausibility is that documentation was not pervasive and did not become a policy objective of the rulers such as to motivate mass  creation of templates that would or could withstand the ravages of the existential threats that reared their heads at any given time. Again for instance if we take the Kano Chronicles, which comprises of narrative of Kano and its rulers we would want to know whether there existed a documentation of 'iron smeltering' (qira) or dying (rini) which were major preoccupations of Kano people. What of the social life? 'Gada' and wasan dandali...  

Most of these things it seems were only documented orally and passed down as traditions from one generation to another. And from the foregoing specific examples can be extended all over the numerous cultures of Africa to arrive at the same conclusion. Of the few exceptions, Egypt's spectacular remains have since been appropriated by others. In fact if not that the pyramids were planted on African soil, there would perhaps have been a different 'story' than what we have as 'History'.  

It is unfortunate that Africa relied too much on the oral form of documentation which is very fragile and fluid and given the highly corrosive nature of Africa it is not surprising that authentic and comprehensive documentation of culture is very scarce and we have had to rely on 'foreigners' to 'reconstruct' our historical realities through the tainted lens of their subjectivities and using their media from language to tools of analysis.  

Alas, even today we continue to build on this template of nonchalant response to the ravages inflicted on our mother Africa with no signs that it will abate. And as language after language disappears or ceases to function as a repository of technology, each carries with it the last fragments of our cultures and we may soon wonder what is it that is African?  

Written by Aliyu A.  Wali

Haidar Wali 201607260918hrs