Oral Traditions and Falsifiability: Exploring African Indigenous Knowledge Repositories

Abstract

Some scholars have expressed concern about the sustainability of relying on oral traditions for unpacking Africa’s knowledge systems, values and history. The core of the concern, especially, from the perspective of advocates of quantitative methods, is the use of interviews in qualitative enquiries. This paper argues that careful qualitative enquiry of African cultural worldviews, beliefs and practices can benefit from the in-depth knowledge of individual and communal repositories without falsifications. There still exist truthful and dependable individuals knowledgeable in both exoteric and esoteric beliefs and philosophies of their cultures and societies who can be counted on for qualitative enquiries.