Analysing Igbo Traditions through Oral History, Ethnolinguistic and Exploratory NLP: Names, Proverbs and Cultural Memory in South-East Nigeria

Abstract

Oral tradition has remained one of the major sources of historical reconstruction in Igboland of Southeast Nigeria. This study therefore, examines it focusing on how Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computationally assisted lexical analysis can help to interpret the oral tradition, including persona names, and proverbs encoded in Igbo worldviews. Adopting an interdisciplinary design, the study combines oral history, ethnolinguistic analysis, and NLP-assisted lexical analysis. Data were purposively drawn from the five states of Southeast Nigeria with thirty participants (six each from the states) selected based on their knowledge of local history, oral traditions and patterns of naming practices. Interactions with the participants produced 45 Igbo personal names bearing socio-cultural, religious or customary significance. These names were manually transcribed, coded and analyzed to identify meanings and messages encoded in them. The interpretation of these data were grounded in the participants’ explanations, contextual knowledge and researchers-led coding, while AI-assisted computational assistance was strictly on identifying recurring lexical forms. Findings show that Igbo proverbs offer evidence of social norms and moral reasoning, while personal names preserve memories of conflicts, survival, religion, kinship, wealth, social identity, morality, unity, bravery, ancestry, social class, authority, peace, and neighborhood. The study, therefore, concludes that computational analysis of oral traditions should remain context-sensitive and ethically governed, with attention to participants’ consent, community participation, provenance, access and stewardship.