The Dilemma of the Historical Archaeologist Using Oral Traditon and Archival Sources in Sub-Saharan Africa

Historical archaeology is the archaeology of a society that can also be investigated through historical documentation. It may also utilise two sources of data, archaeological and historical. However, the Historical Archaeologist using oral tradition and archival sources in sub-Saharan Africa is confronted by the fact that most of the archival materials were compiled under colonial historiography and have today had a feedback effect on some aspects of the oral tradition of the people. And what we have in effect is that historical studies of most regions of sub-Saharan Africa tend to be centred on spontaneous migrations of ethnic groups which are treated in isolation as if totally independent of one another as seen in the examples from the Jos Plateau of Central Nigeria and the North-western Grasslands of Cameroon. This indeed is a serious dilemma for the historical archaeologists working in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper is, therefore, an attempt to clarify these historiographical issues and suggests that the historical archaeologist working in sub-Saharan Africa must re-examination the use of oral tradition and archival sources and adopt a multi-disciplinary approach so as to be able to decipher the nature of the early populations in the area in terms of the evolution of social organisations and cultural processes, which brought about the integration of the various ethnic groups within the region.