Introduction to African Historiography and Philosophy of History.pdf

Introduction to African Historiography
and Philosophy of History
02/10/2022 African History Project 1

Welcome
In this session, we will explore African historiography and philosophy of history, meaning we will get an
introduction to some of the key philosophical and methodological debates in African history.
This course can be taken as a standalone course or as part of the Foundation Certificate Module Historiography
and Philosophy of History.
By the end of this course, you will have an understanding of:
o The meaning of history, historiography and philosophy of history.
o The key stages of African historiography from antiquity to the present.
o The key areas of consideration in African philosophy of history.
o The importance of historians and history consumers understanding the key features and stages of
development in the African historical tradition.

1. The meaning of history, historiography
and philosophy of history

History
Historiography
Philosophy of
History
What are your thoughts?

History
Historiography
Philosophy of
History
The narratives we weave about the past; the action of weaving narratives
about the past; the documentation and dissemination of narratives about
the past.
“The history of Africa, like the history of mankind as a whole, is really the
story of a awakening”
Joseph Ki-Zerbo, “General Introduction”, UNESCO General History of Africa, 1981.
A study of how humans have documented their histories. From oral
societies to our scientific modern societies, historiography considers the
different narratives of the past that have been woven and the wider
political, social, and ecological contexts that influenced the formation and
preservation of particular narratives.
Theories about what history is and how history should be done. This
includes theories about the building blocks of history, such as what is
time, what is the past, who makes history, can people, nations, and ideas
have separate histories, what should history be used for, how should
history interact with politics, literature, biology, and other human, social,
and natural sciences?

2. The key stages of African historiography
from antiquity to the present

Oral Traditions

After he had created the earth, Olodumare, the supreme God of all
gods, sent sixteen of his strongest orisha, the minor deities who
rule all of existence with him, down to bring life to earth. These
sixteen male orisha were the strongest that Olodumare had ever
assembled with the power of all of existence in their hands and the
ability to move mountains and uproot planets confined in the
warmness of their breaths. No greater council of orisha had ever
met and they were tasked to give birth to Olodumare’s greatest
creation, life itself.
They combined all of their forces with the singular task of bringing
forth new life. They focussed all of the energy that had ever existed
in every time and place ever existing and yet, not one single drop
of water fell, not one shoot rose from the ground and not one hoof
of any animal pushed down into it. For several days and several
nights, they laboured amongst themselves yet not one life fell from
the warmness of their breaths.
And it was then, almost at the same time, that they all understood
what was missing. Looking from man to man, their breaths crippled
by the exertion, they decided that it was time to call on Oshun, the
only female deity who had been sent to earth but who until then
they had ignored.
You see, Oshun is special. Oshun carries rivers in her chest and
sweetness on her tongue. The whole of nature manifests in her
breath and even Olodumare accepts, there are few Orisha that in
their kingship could match the power of the feminine housed in
Oshun.
When the sixteen male Orisha arrived in front of her, she wasn’t
ready to receive them, she was there but she was not going to be
so easily willed to their task; she hadn’t originally been asked.
They didn’t send a representative; no, all sixteen of them met and
arrived in ceremony to plead in unison that she help them to
bring forth the life that only she held captive in the oceans
balanced between her shoulders. They pleaded and they
pleaded, but her life was her own, she would not be so easily
compelled.
Eventually she agreed to help them, for her love of Olodumare
and her love of life itself. She merely had to open her mouth and
from her tongue dripped sweetness and from her throat flowed
water. And in the mixture of that water and that sweetness all of
life existed, manifesting into the flora and the fauna to which
today still she is most deeply connected. For all the might of
sixteen men, all of life came from the breath one African woman.
Oshun Creates Life
Oral Traditions

Extract from the autobiography of
Chief Anthony Enahoro
Oral Traditions

Extract from the Preface to Carl Christian Reindorf’s, “History
of the Gold Coast and Asante” (1895)
“It is no egotism when I say I have had the privilege of being initiated into, and also of possessing a love for, the
history of my country. My ancestors on the father’s and mother’s side belonged to the families of national officiating
high priests in Akra and Christiansborg. And I should have become a priest either of Nai at Akra or Kote at
Christiansborg, if I had not been born a mulatto and become a Christian. My worthy grandmother Okãko Asase, as in
duty bound to her children and grandchildren, used to relate the traditions of the country to her people when they sat
around her in the evenings. My education and calling separated meat from home, and prevented me from
completing the series of these lessons in native tradition.
However in 1860 I felt a craving to spend some days with her, so as to complete it; but she died whilst I was absent
from home in Krobo as a catechist. Four years later Rev. Fr. Aldinger asked me to collect traditions for him; but the
old lady was dead, and the old people, though possessing a vast store of tradition, refrained from imparting it; so I
obtained very little for him.
This treatment of the then old people stirred up a greater desire in me to use all available means in my power to
collect traditions. From more than 200 persons of both sexes I obtained what knowledge of the subject I now
possess. These traditions I have carefully compared in order to arrive at the truth. The result I now humbly present to
the public…”
Source

Histories and
Explorer Journals
in Arabic
c.1655
Abd al-Rahman
al-Sa’di
Timbuktu chronicler
c.1354
Abu Abdullah Muhammad
ibn Battutah
North African Berber traveller

1830
Richard Lander
British Explorer
1876
David Livingstone
British Explorer
Histories and Explorer
Journals by Europeans

Extract from Journal of Exploration of the Niger
Richard and John Lander
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Extract from Journal of Exploration of the Niger
Richard and John Lander
STAY AT BADAGRY. 49
well cause the people to laugh heartily ; tney were
all evidently highly amused ;
but the more modest
of the females, unwilling to give us any uneasiness,
turned aside to conceal the titter, from which they
were utterly unable to refrain.
On our way we observed various groups of people
seated under the spreading branches of superb trees,
vending provisions and country cloth ; and on our
approach many of these arose and bowed, while
others fell on their knees before us in token of re-
spect. VVe reached the dwelling which had been
prepared for us about three o’clock in the afternoon
;
but as the day was too far advanced to visit the chief
or king, we sent a messenger to inform him of our
intention of paying him our respects to-morrow
morning.
March 23rf. —At nine o’clock this morning, agree-
ably to yesterday’s promise, we visited the chief at
his residence, which is somewhat more than half a
mile from our own. On our entrance he was sitting
on a couple of boxes in a small bamboo apartment,
from whose sides were suspended a great quantity
of muskets and swords, with a few paltry umbrellas,
and a couple of horses’ tails, which are used for the
purpose of brushing away flies and other insects.
King Adooley looked up in our faces without making
any observation, and did not rise from his seat to
congratulate us on our arrival. He appeared in deep
reflection, and thoughtfully rested his elbow on an
old wooden table, pillowing his head on his hand.
One of the most venerable and ancient of his sub-
jects was squatted at the feet of his master, smoking
from a pipe of extraordinary length ;
while Lantern,
his eldest son and heir-apparent, was kneeling at his
side, etiquette not allowing the youth to sit in pres-
ence of his father. Every thing bore an air of gloom
and sadness totally different from what we had been
led to expect. We shook hands, but the pressure
of the chief was so very faint that it was scarcely
VoL. I.—
E
50 STAY AT BADAGRY.
perceptible; yet, notwithstanding this apparent cold-
ness, we seated ourselves, one on each side, with-
out ceremony or embarrassment. The conversation
was commenced on our part by inquiring after the
chief’s health, which was answered only by a lan-
guid smile, and he again relapsed into his former
thoughtfulness. We then displayed lo the greatest
advantage the presents we had brought for him from
England ; they were accepted, it is true, but without
the slightest demonstration of pleasure or satisfac-
tion ; they were scarcely looked at, and were car-
ried away by his attendants with real or seeming
indifference. This was very mortifying, but we said
not a word, though it was the easiest thing imagin-
able to perceive that all was not right, k reserve,
the cause whereof we could not define, and a cold-
ness towards us for which we could in nowise ac-
count, marked the conduct of the once spirited and
good-natured chief of Baddgry, and prepared us to
anticipate various difficulties in the prosecution of
our plans, which we are persuaded will require
much art and influence to surmount. Adooley left
us abru])tly in the midst of the conversation, and did
not return for some time.
Wearied at length with his long delay, we des-
patched a messenger to acquaint him that we were
becoming impatient, and would feel obliged by his
immediate return, in order to put an end to our con-
ference, or paldver, as it is emphatically styled, as
speedily as possible. On receiving this message
the chief hastened back, and entered the apart-
ment with a melancholy countenance, which was
partially concealed behind large volumes of smoke
from a tobacco-pipe which he was using. He seated
himself between us as before, and gave us to under-
stand, in a very low tone of voice, that he was but
just recovering from a severe illness, and from
the effects of a variety of misfortunes which had
tendered him almost broken-hearted. His generals.

Early
nationalist
histories

Extract from History of Gold Coast and Asante
Carl Christian Reindorf
Early
nationalist
histories

SOURCE 2: Extract from Foreword to CLR James “The Black
Jacobins” (2001) [1938]
“The Black Jacobins was first published in England in 1938, but I had written on the subject before I left
Trinidad in 1932. I had had the idea for some time. I was tired of reading and hearing about Africans
being persecuted and oppressed in Africa, in the middle passage, in the USA and all over the
Caribbean. I made up my mind that I would write a book in which Africans or people of African descent
instead of constantly being the object of other people’s exploitation and ferocity would themselves be
taking action on a grand scale and shaping other people in their own needs. The books on the Haitian
revolution that I had read were of no serious historical value, so as soon as I arrived in England in 1932,
I began to look for materials and found only the same shallow ones I had read in the Caribbean. I
immediately began to import books from France which dealt seriously with this memorable event in
French history.” (1980)
Source

The Ibadan
School
Dr. Kenneth Dike

3. The key areas of consideration in
African philosophy of history

African, Islamic, Western
Triple Heritage
Geographical and political
delineations
Africa?
Continental, diasporic, sub-
Saharan
Traditions, testimonies, histories
Orality
History, religion, philosophy
Multidisciplinary
Social harmony, national pride
Utility and Esteem
Temporalisation, periodisation
Time
Dr. Toyin Falola

‘a body of more or less general concepts of the past, common to most, if not all, peoples of the African
continent’ [Akinola, 68].
‘Historical consciousness reflects the society to which it belongs, and even each significant phase in the
evolution of that society, so it is clear that the Africans’ conception of their own history and of history in
general will be marked by their own particular development’ [Hama and Ki-Zerbo, 43].
‘Just as everywhere else all over the world, [African man] has created his own history, and his own idea
of it. On the factual level the proofs and products of this creative ability are there before our
eyes…Through all the centuries since man first appeared, Africans have shaped an independent society
which by its vitality alone bears witness to their historical genius. This history, which came into being
empirically, a priori, was thought out and interiorized a posteriori both by individuals and social groups.
In this way it became an intellectual frame of reference, a spiritual and emotional authority, a reason and
a setting for living, a model’ [Hama and Ki-Zerbo, 43].
Triple Heritage
Philosophy of
History

4. The importance of understanding the
features and stages of development in the
African historical tradition.

Hegel Trevor-Roper
“What we properly understand by Africa, in the
Unhistorical, Underdeveloped spirit, still involved in the
conditions of mere nature, and which have to be
presented here only as on the threshold of World
History” (1837)
“Perhaps in the future there will be some African history
to teach. But at the present there is none – there is only
the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is
darkness… and darkness is not a subject of history”
(1962)

The aims and tactics employed by the rebels made it clear to observers that many had been soldiers in
Africa... beyond one or two exceptional leaders, whole cadres of people had military training and
discipline, or had at least gained knowledge of defensive tactics in Africa. Indeed, many American slave
revolts might be seen as extensions of African wars. Casting them as such does more than assert the
importance of Africa in the making of the Atlantic world; it helps to reveal how complex networks of
migration, belonging, transregional power, and conflict gave the political history of the eighteenth
century some of its distinctive contours. Recognising slave revolt as a species of warfare is the first step
toward a new cartography of Atlantic slavery. [Brown, 4]
Tacky’s Revolt
New
Approaches

END…

Thank You!
In this course, we explored African historiography and philosophy of history, introducing you to some of
the key philosophical and methodological debates in African history.
You should now understand:
o The meaning of history, historiography and philosophy of history.
o The key stages of African historiography from antiquity to the present.
o The key areas of consideration in African philosophy of history.
o The importance of historians and history consumers understanding the key features and stages of
development in the African historical tradition.
______
Any Questions? Contact me, Apeike Umolu, on apeike@africanhistoryproject.org.

Introduction to African Historiography and Philosophy of History.pdf

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