Indigenous Intellectual Tradition: Oral Citation Style among the Luo of Kenya

Abstract

The growing influence of modernity has resulted in the marginalization of oral traditions in mainstream epistemological discourses. This article is informed by current theoretical politics on the perceptions of indigenous epistemologies especially in African societies. The contemporary scholarship is dominated by Eurocentric conceptions of knowledge which impose rigid criteria of judgment on local ways of knowing. Nevertheless, this article demonstrates that there exist a myriad of knowledge structures within the subaltern cultures of Africa. Using the Luo community of Kenya as a case study, the article addresses the issues of authorship and ownership of knowledge which bear on the scholarly admissibility of oral tradition. It emerges that the Luo community is endowed with an interesting indigenous intellectual tradition complete with a citation style for acknowledgment of knowledge sources. By unveiling the uniqueness of the Luo citation style, the article counters claims that quotation culture operate strictly within a literate context.