Memory, orality and learning: Reflections of an oral historian

This article presents two reflections about memory from my long years of engagement as an oral historian. I argue that within cultures of orality, where wisdom traditions abound, memory is often ‘a site of learning’ distinct from forms of colonial knowledge, including the idea of history itself. My second reflection is that cultures of orality also nurture a form of fugitive memory that can conceal itself from public attention for extended duration of time. Drawing on the works of Amritlal Nagar and Mahasweta Devi, two postcolonial writers, I look at how memory of the 1857 ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ was forced to conceal itself in British India until it could be articulated safely. These insights from cultures of orality enable us to articulate two inter-related dimensions of memory and their relationship with community in a postcolonial context.