The concept of oral history

Changing the way we study the past, shaping the future of Humanities

I have always been very interested in history. As soon as I realized how easily history could be used as a means of propaganda, I recognized the importance of oral history. This movement requires historians to alter the way they study the past. The value of oral history lies in personal testimonies from people that have witnessed or been involved in historical events. Studying these events in this grassroots way and paying more attention to the individual instead of government records ensures that history is shaped by the people, not by political, economic, military ideologies, or by the interests of those with power. This allows for a more humane way of looking at history, to get an accurate reflection on some of humanity’s greatest question marks and historiographical debates.

One example of this could be the post-World War I power struggle in the Ottoman Empire territories. Turks, Greeks, Armenians, and ethnic minorities all tried to claim their heritage in Asia Minor, in, more or less, hostile ways, after centuries of peaceful co-existence of this mix of nationalities up until the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, in the Balkans, the Serbs, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Turks also tried to claim grounds. Historians that have studied this part of European-Middle Eastern history have mostly relied on reports, numbers and statistics provided by the governments and national organizations in the region. Novels written by Penelope Delta and other distinguished authors, intellectuals, and politicians of the time proved to be strong sources of information. However, one can easily understand that due to the complexity of this geopolitical issue, a variety of conflicting interests arose, with drastically different historiographical approaches. Thus, none of these sources can be guaranteed to accurately reflect the essence of the struggles of the time, which is when oral history comes in. With personal testimonies, voice recordings, interviews, personal letters, and diaries, oral history detaches historical events from purely governmental accounts.

According to the Oral History Association, the term oral history refers to "a method of recording and preserving oral testimony" which results in a verbal document that is “made available in different forms to other users, researchers, and the public.” This organization also stresses the complexities of oral history in regard to legal concerns. Testimonies, interviews, and personal stories need delicate policies to protect privacy and copyrights, all analyzed in A Guide to Oral History and the Law. The author examines the most relevant court cases and cites examples of policies and procedures that oral history programs have used to avoid legal difficulties.

But oral history is not limited to researchers in history associations. Here in Menton, we have so many interesting stories and personal testimonies from important events in history to share. I was really intrigued by the prospect of being able to learn from this diverse student body, but I encourage Sciences Po to include more testimonies, and oral history into the curriculum itself. This would add to our social sciences and anthropological studies, by giving a first-hand picture of historical events and situations. Studying social and political sciences in such a prestigious university, we use history a lot, thus oral history could very well fit in our curriculum. It would be an improved way of looking at things, considering different points of view, getting different experiences, which is actually crucial to the work of a thorough historian. Instead of basing the bulk of research on governmental state archives, we can study and create different archives by interviewing people from different backgrounds to get their experiences of a particular historical period.

Oral history is a very powerful tool that can make all diverse voices heard loud and clear. It gives power and space to historically oppressed and marginalized groups, and we get the option to understand the same event in greater depth, and under different lenses, depending on each person’s experiences. Indigenous populations, for example, are often not included in reports by authorities, however, by using oral history and interviewing them, we get a better sense of their reality.

In the refugee crisis, for example, listening provides more context than numbers, and head counts in the camps of Lesvos, we need to listen. Let the people talk and we listen.

Lilinaz Hakimi, 2A at Sciences Po, volunteered in one of the camps in Lesvos this past summer. She stressed the importance of this human-to-human connection in building empathy that cannot be replaced by statistics. In her own words, having heard the stories from the people themselves, “it is really important to hear someone’s story and connect, visualize, to understand what they are going through, understand how any historical event has so many different layers underneath.”

In the end, what it really comes down to is making history more a part of humanities like it was always intended to be. Let us not get carried away by the tendencies of our times to measure and file everything, which can be demeaning to the actual events. Let us keep being humans, keep connecting to other people and listening to them. Experiences are more valuable than any other means of sourcing, and we have so much of that.

- Angeliki Vytogianni