Audio files as oral history source


My field materials also consist of audio files which represent testimonies of local history by oral protagonists. They are mainly from the cross-border area of the northwestern Mandara mountains overlapping NE Nigeria and the far north of Cameroon. I recorded them in the 1980s and 1990s with the help of my friends and research assistants as interviewers.

The audio files are all in mp3 and they have been digitized to underpin their importance as primary field material. They contain ethnographic information provided by oral protagonists who agreed to speak about aspects of their montagnard past. We start with Dghwede audio files, because we just published Azaghvana. to give Dghwede oral history a voice after they had their mountainous homeland destroyed by Boko Haram.




Tape 1:

'The arrest of Hamman Yaji': Dghwede oral history accounts from September 1996.

Oral protagonists:

Track A

Zakariya Kwire and Dga
Parda of Ghwa'a



Track B

Baba Musa of Barawa




No Track C

invisble



  • Interviewer is research assistant: John Zakariya
  • Ethnographer: Gerhard Muller-Kosack
  • Oral account is discussed in Chapter 2.2: 'Unsettling colonial years'
  • In: Azaghvana (2021:101-131)


Tape 2:

'Twins and twin ceremonies': Dghwede oral history account from August 2001.

Oral protagonists:

Track A

Dada Dukwa of Ghwa'a



Track B

Dada Dukwa of Ghwa'a



Track C

Dada Dukwa of Ghwa'a



  • Interviewer is research assistant: John Zakariya
  • Ethnographer: Gerhard Muller-Kosack
  • Oral account is discussed in Chapter 3.19: 'The birth of twins and ideas around conception'
  • In: Azaghvana (2021:473-484)


Tape 3:

'First Dghwede interview about traditions of origin':Dghwede oral history account in relation to the central role of Ghwa'a, from November 1994 (see also Gwoza notes).

Oral protagonists:

Track A

Musa Kalakwa Dawa and other Dghwede from Barawa



Track B

Musa Kalakwa Dawa and other Dghwede from Barawa



No Track C

invisble



  • Interviewer is Lamang research assistant: Ibrahim Vile (with Dghwede speakers)
  • Ethnographer: Gerhard Muller-Kosack
  • Oral account is discussed in Chapter 3.3: 'The Tur tradition in its wider subregional context'
  • In: Azaghvana (2021:157-166)


Tape 4:

'Baba Musa about the Dagha peacemaker lineage': Dghwede oral history account from 13 August 1996.

Oral protagonists:

Track A

Baba Musa of Barawa



No Track B

invisble



No Track C

invisble



  • Interviewer is research assistant: John Zakariya
  • Ethnographer: Gerhard Muller-Kosack
  • Oral account is discussed in Chapter 3.7: 'Specialist lineage groups'
  • In: Azaghvana (2021:207-215)