Arranging records of historical events

The chronological arrangement of historical events

1. helps to relate historical events.
2. It also helps to identify important historical events in different periods and how they contributed or hindered the development of a particular community

Keeping records of historical events is a method of preserving information about past occurrences in society. The main purpose of keeping historical records is to pass such information from one generation to another.

There are various methods used to preserve historical events, depending on the nature of the information. These methods include:

1. Oral Narratives – The earliest method of keeping historical records, where information is shared verbally.
2. Historical Sites – Physical locations that serve as evidence of past events.
3. Museums – Places where historical artifacts, documents, and cultural materials are preserved.
4. Written Documents – Records kept in books, reports, newspapers, journals, and electronic materials.

Oral narratives were the primary method of recording historical events before the development of writing and technology. This method involved passing down information about past events, such as:

1. Wars and conflicts.
2. Weapons and technology.
3. Culture and traditions.
4. Politics and leadership.

In many Tanzanian societies, oral narratives were also reflected in naming traditions. Children were often named after significant historical events, such as:

1. Floods
2. Famine
3. Drought
4. Wars

The following are the advantages of using oral narratives to keep records of historical events.

1. These helps to get past information easily. Compared to other methods of keeping records of historical events, oral narratives are easier to obtain. This method provides information through the word of mouth. It does not need any extra skills, other than just listening.
2. These helps to collect and keep past events of society. The use of genres such as proverbs, stories, and legends during narration helps to build and retrieve memories about the past.
3. These promotes the culture of society. Narratives of historical events help to understand past customs and traditions. Since oral narratives are given by elders to young people, they carry the customs and traditions of the past generation to the next one. The generation that receives these narratives, in turn, narrates them to another generation. Thus, past customs and traditions are known to the new generation.
4. These entertains people. Narrating past events entertains people. In narrating, elders use various styles which do not bore their listeners; thus, it entertains and attracts them to listen. The narration may go hand in hand with songs, proverbs, and jokes which entertain the listeners.
5. These maintains good morals and behaviour in society. Through oral narratives, people learn about traditions, customs, religion, politics, and economy. Thus, oral narratives educate by providing guidelines on the better way to live. Narratives passes from one generation to another focus on teaching better ways of living in society.

There are various challenges of keeping oral historical records. The following are some of them:

1. Biasness: Oral narratives are sometimes influenced by the bias of the narrator. The authenticity of oral narratives can be questionable when the narrator has a personal interest in the story. The narrator might exaggerate the information he/she shares for his/her own benefits. For example, the narrator can consciously lie that his society won a war against another society.
2. Forgetfulness and possibility of distortions: If a long time has passed since the event happened, the narrator might forget some facts about the event. The narrator can also intentionally add unwanted or false information. In addition, information may be distorted when it passes through many people across different generations. People usually tell others what they heard, understood, and remembered from the previous narrator. They also tell stories which interest them most or serve their personal interests.
3. Prone to loss: There are possibilities of losing historical information if the narrator dies or suffers from loss of memory because of ageing or sickness.
4. Dependence on human capacity: Keeping the memory of historical events and the ability to retrieve it depend on the ability of the person to correctly capture that particular information. These include one's ability to listen, understand and analyse what is being narrated. The lower the person's ability, the greater the chance of distortion of such historical information.
5. Reflection of the narrator's culture: Oral narratives are related to the narrator's culture; therefore, these narratives are best understood by people with similar cultures, such as language. If the listener comes from a different cultural background, it might be difficult for him or her to understand the narratives being told.

The following ways can be used to overcome the challenges of using oral narratives:

1. Interview more than one person on the same event;
2. Use other sources to verify the same information; and
3. Understand the narrator's culture.