African History Twenty-Five Years Ago and Today

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Periodical article

Title:	African History Twenty-Five Years Ago and Today
Author:	Dike, K. Onwuka
Year:	1980
Periodical:	Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria
Volume:	10
Issue:	3
Period:	December
Pages:	13-22
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:	historiography History and Exploration
Abstract:	The study of African history has undergone almost revolutionary changes which not only influenced writing and research on the African past, but challenged the European use of history in Africa. In the colonial era African history was deliberately slanted and distorted to justify the European presence in Africa. The assumed lack of African history so widely advertised in the literature twenty-five years ago, was intended to prove that the African had no history and was therefore subhuman. Outside the universities the ignorance of African history still persists. Further progress must be made in the detailed investigation of small-scale societies and states. This implies the training of researchers equipped with the tools and techniques of the social scientist which are indispensable for the analysis of non-literate, small-scale societies. The modern African historian must view African history in direct continuity from the pre-historic period and not as an appendage to Arab or European civilizations.