Role of Knowledge about Past Events - Essay Example

Module AFA 201 Knowledge about the events of the past is vital to people and is a collective reason for our position and identities in regional, local, and global communities. Even though history may have its detractors who consider it to be a collection of fiction and myth, the former academic undertakings have often included historical inquiry. This evidently demonstrates that history should be regarded as the oldest disciplines of academics (Nordo 23). However, considerable disagreements on what places, people, themes, or events are worthy to study in the context of history have been witnessed globally. Even worse, some philosophers and historians argue that not all regions and people have a history to consider. In this regard, African history has been deemed to be relatively new especially after obscure remarks were made by some philosophers. From the onset of the nineteenth century, a German philosopher gave a seminar in which he declared that Africa is not a historical part of the world. He emphasized that it had no development or movement to exhibit to the rest of the world. A hundred years later, a Harvard professor Hugh Trevor-Roper shared Hegel’s sentiments and declared that the only history that Africa can share is Europeans in Africa. He further stated that the rest is largely darkness and that darkness is not a history subject. Such sentiments indicate a racist worldview and high ignorance of African achievements. However, besides racism, statements refuting that Africa holds a history are founded on crucial conception of historical sources that are valid. It was believed that development towards progress and changes in societies was to be written at the particular time of occurrence. This insistence on written materials depicted Africa’s past invisible to some historians and to the wider public. Most of the African societies had not developed writing systems prior to the nineteenth ant twentieth century (Taiwo 118). This reveals that there was a paucity of documented records that could be used by historians in the study of Africa’s history. The few documented details stemmed from observers from outside such as European travelers and merchants. Due to this inconsistency, it was widely held that there was no history in Africa. It was however discovered much later that indeed Africa had a rich past confined to Africa’s colonial history. After all, the missionaries, businessmen, and European colonial administrators kept detailed accounts of observations and activities on the continent of Africa (Oladale 319). Putting this into consideration, the historians drew from the documented records to study Africa’s past in colonial times even though it was limited to colonial undertakings. Nevertheless, there was a complete distortion of the African values to the advantage of the European countries. This has put Africa in a dilemma whether to follow Afrocentric or Eurocentric civilization paths. Trying to trace the history of Africa only on written documents is portrayed as archaic since there was existence prior to the arrival of European colonialists. This can be seen clearly in that before the coming of the Europeans; African societies were organized into cultural, political, economic, and social institutions. Long before the Europeans, Africans were held in family units that were called clans. Each clan was headed by an appointed leader suggesting that they understood authority and the ethics of governance. The intrusion of the west in the African society through colonialism has seen under development in various regions. Some of the areas that were affected by colonialism in Africa were economic, political and social status. Through oral traditions, it noted that the African community traded with different tribes in order to sustain their livelihood among. Through this, the African society grew into one big community and traded in their own “markets”. This kind of barter trade enhanced peace since everyone was dependent on another in some way. Women were substantially involved in trading while men enhanced security within these communities and protected the entire society. With the arrival of the European colonialist, they introduced the use of money and coins which were not readily acceptable to various communities. This led to competitions and conflicts among ethnic groups. The colonialist took some of the Africans as slaves dementing the African society significantly leading to an enormous setback in the development of the African societies. Colonialism itself was morally wrong in that it is a political system whereby an external state takes complete control of another nation in a different area of the world. Since colonialism in Africa was practiced differently, the colonial rule consequences differ from region to region. This affected the African community immensely in that after independence; some of the leaders employed this form of governments and oppressed the common people. Not only did Africa undergo major culture clashes, but the European asserted traditions to implement in order to justify their stay in Africa. Africa developed on its own after colonialism though under the terms of the west. This means that new frontiers were created by colonialism and developed new economic and political objectives. Family setup and practices in pre-colonial times were significantly affected in colonial and post-colonial times. In some areas, rural to rural migration was primal and this led to separation and dislocation of family members. These migrations challenged cultural and social beliefs that pertain to the family setup. To fit the new situations, some of the long-held cultures and practices were abandoned. Families were split up as men migrated in search of work. This led to women and adolescents taking up new responsibilities in order to cope with the absence of their fathers and husbands. Prior to colonialism, the structure of an extended family was the norm in African societies. The introduction of the colonial era saw to the upholding of the nuclear family as the new standard in the African society. It is evident from this study that Africa as a continent has suffered significant consequences of colonialism in diverse ways. The European view that dictated that there was no history in Africa due to late development in documentation was done ostensibly in order to promote inferiority of the African to his European counterpart. However, African historians have tremendously challenged the languid view of Europeans on Africa’s history by providing a horde of sources that have shown invaluable in Africa’s past reconstruction (Gilbert, Reynolds 215). The validity of this history as expressed by oral traditions and other history sources has been accepted and recognized globally. These sources when professionally harnessed, harmonized and processed, can be more dependable than secondary materials used in historical scholarship. European researchers have recently embraced the use of oral traditions proving that Africa had valid historical sources. Works cited Gilbert, Erik T. and Jonathan Reynolds. Africa in world history. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Print Nordo, Dan. The European colonization of Africa. New Castle: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, 2010. Print Oladele, Adeoti, “Africa history and the tradition of historical writing: Journal of social science 3:2 (2014):317-322 Taiwo, olufemi. How colonization preempted modernity in Africa. Bloomington: Indian University press, 2010. Print Read More