Answer to Question #313272 in History for neo

Question

1. “Africa had no history prior to European exploration and colonization, that there is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness”, her past “the unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe” (Trevor-Roper, 1963: 871).

Based on the historical debates you have come across, do you agree with Trevor-Roper’s view?

Answer 1

African historiography has been following divisions, schemes, and sequences set by the Europeans who in the past claimed that there was no such thing as African history and that the history of Africa began with the history of the Europeans in Africa. With this mind-set, in creating what they called African History, the early Eurocentric historians periodized it in sequences as they thought fit and proper. Thus, periodization in African history tended to focus on events that coincided with the intrusive European explorers rather than events antedating them. There seems to be a lacuna in the periodization of African history, especially with respect to the continent’s past before Western contacts. The structure of African historiography had more to do with the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade than with African experiences. African history should be periodized in such a way that the multiple fragments of her past, cultures, languages, religions, philosophies, cosmology, arts, aesthetics, music, dance, warfare, architectures, farming, astrology, rituals, navigation, crafts, industries, etc. are taken into account in order to represent the peculiarities of the continent’s history. The periodization along the lines of centuries has left a lot to be methodically captured, and this has created a gap in Africa’s historiographical scholarship. The paper intends to re-examine Africa’s historiography and reveal the gaps in the periodization scheme of Africa’s history. It also makes a case for the restructuring of Africa’s historical periodization in line with aspects of Africa’s past not deeply investigated and structured in the scheme of history.

The tortuous road to Africa’s historiography

Africa as a continent is full of diversity, seen arguably in every facet of life; as a result, over time, diverse interpretations have been given to Africa’s realities and circumstances. Archaeological finds in East Africa posited Africa as the cradle of human life, and historical evidence has shown that Africa once stood as a gateway to “awesome civilization”. Writing African history has been challenging and mostly difficult, due to a lack of both comprehensive written records and holistic archaeological evidence that covers all the zones of Africa from past times. This has left Africa’s historical scholarship in the hands of foreign adventurers, sailors, writers, and amateur historians, most of whom never ventured beyond the coastal fringes of the areas of Africa they visited. Unfortunately, the history of Africa tended to focus on the activities of two groups, the Arabs and the Europeans in Africa. This situation produced a medley of confusion in African historiography, as African history was written merely from the bird’s-eye view of aliens and, second, was sequenced following patterns of historical developments outside the continent. The consequence was that Africa’s historical sequences became jumbled, and externalities not congruent with trends in Africa’s past and realities shaped her historical timelines.