Learning History Through Songs in Gogrial
Posted: 16 Apr 2013
Date Written: April 16, 2013
Abstract
This paper considers the role of songs in constructing a historical narrative in Warrap State, South Sudan. It asks how historians can use this material to understand a locally grounded version of the past. Academic studies of Dinka history and culture have drawn attention to the importance of songs as a way of transmitting cultural knowledge and as a form of cultural production (e.g. Lienhardt 1961, Deng 1973). Songs are an important way that people narrate and map the past as they contain personal, family and local histories. Songs can also be seen as constructing personal geographies that locate the singer in space and time. Engaging with songs can give historians a more sophisticated understanding of the way that the past is articulated by ordinary people. This contributes to debates about historical source material and how to approach local histories in South Sudan. The paper is based on songs collected and translated during my PhD fieldwork in Gogrial East and West, Warrap State, South Sudan in 2011-2012.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation