Historiography

Historiography means the history of history writing or in other word the art of writing past records or accounts. It is different from the collection of historical evidence, the editing of the historical sources, thoughts and imaginations parse but it is related and sometimes overlaps all of them.The word “Diaspora” is used to describe communities living their original homes, the African Diaspora has been used to refer to the study and account of series of reactions, to the imposition of the economic and the rule of alien people in Africa, to slavery and imperialism, trades and trade rout such as in “perilous of ranching sea” In conclusion the African historian has in most instances focused on slave trade, slavery, the period of imperialism and the petition on Africa.Shoppers ‘s conceptualization Of African Diaspora recognized the important role of role of internal migrations, for example the forceful extraction from the mainland transportation to east Africa , oversees other part of Africa.

AFRICAN HISTORIOGRAPHY Initially Africans history was written by Europeans, they took a prejudice, monophonic and racialist standpoint there by alienating the facts about the real African History. Africans were presented in as barbaric, uncultured and primitive.

To Hegel, Africa had no history in the world; it had no movement or development exhibit. The colonial period in Africa left a historic legacy to overcome. The colonial imprint on the historic know how gave a wrong perspective, a Resurrection view of a world created during the time of European dominion in Africa. They inculcated the idea that European education be acceptable as the modern knowledge. The Shift Despite the initial attitude, 20th century ushered a new era of intellectualism that gave birth to true history of Africa and the world in general.This brought to pay new movements of research and study of African History; this was taken up by different people around the world including Africans historians. This came along way to lift African History to a level of recognition to a contributor to world history, people neglected before and human experiences initially buried under narrow traditions were brought t the light of the world, for instance Egypt which for long had been taken to fall under Asia became an area of intense research and it was revealed to have started the very first civilization which later spread to Greece, Rome and Europe.

According t Wed du Bois view; it was in Nile valley that significant human culture arose. The 20th century shift therefore apart from giving a balance view of human development also served as a warning that history should not just be taken as a semi-private possession valuable only to a particular society. European history was a history Of great powerful and great men and not small people. It ignored the rich cultures of various societies.With time a group of African historians emerged and divorcing themselves from the Resurrection approaches, they were more concerned with erasing racial notion purporting Africa as a non historical entity. They pointed to the large African empires and ancient empires which were very organized and had political history just like any other European country. The first role of African historians was to correct the view and change the value judgment leaving the roles unchanged.

Europeans in Africa rather than being seen as heroes of civilization were seen as cruel exploiters who made little effort to effect ramification and whose admit castration styles emphasized full and relegation of Africans to subordinate roles. The emergence of nationalist movements is indicative of African role playing, political scientist writing of this were the first to decolonize the history of colonial period. J. Life, E. I Assistant, A.A mazurka and many others have featured prominently, in their account they attempted to give a more balanced view of the causes of resistant as compared to Resurrection view the saw Africans as Satanism and machinations of witch crafty hence lacking any redeeming quality. The ultimate decentralization of African history it the colonial period came with behavioral revolution which began to Influence African historiography, some historians began to adopt inter discipline approach seeking to use the contribution of other scientists.

Other began to look at single small regions hoping to use micro cosmic studies to eliminate large and more complex pattern of social and economic change. This attempt was aimed to make African historiography independent and free from colonial writing which in themselves contain biases of colonial, proper past knowledge is only possible room oral interview of people who experienced the regime, the Africans historians are the pioneer of oral traditions and works which through international approaches have been explored as a unique source of African history.Historians in Africa have already influenced other social sciences throughout their work in pre colonial period at several levels. They have shown the Africans are not static but there was dynamic transformation from traditional society which followed a steady process of modernization. I was shown that African pre-colonial institutions, social patterns of life, religions ND economies underwent rapid changes like any other societies, be;en agricultural and industrial revolution.They have shown how simple and complex societies worked thereby going far to prove that African were not such primitive as portrayed in western concert. Through the years African historiography has had world wide recognition and Africans in this respect entered equal rank with other major culture area like South and East Europe.

Many academic institutions and university in Europe adopted the history of third world and treated it equal with Europe history. Scholars in other spieling have considered African history as relevant data in the basis for any generalization about human society.This therefore has shown achievement in decentralization of African history. CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN DIASPORA It needs to be acknowledged that a few of the descendants of millions of Africans who volunteered or involuntarily found their way into Atlantic world or western hemisphere wrote not only about Africa but also their experience as immigrant. There writings were educative inspiring and critical on the whole fact of blackness in world politics and economies. These were in publications such as;- l. W.

E.D Dubos (1986) – suppression of African slave trade in the United States of America II. 1946 – the world and Africa; an (1638-1870) inquiry into the past which Africa has played in the world’s history These serves to demonstrate the extent of black slavery in America and the fact that Africa had a history The Africa diasporas has also contributed to Africa history via their activity in the pan-Africans where they internationalist the anti-colonial movement and inspire nationalist in Africa, example;- Sylvester Williams Du Bois Marcus ConveyPlus with the recently civil right movements in USA, African migrants’ scholars did manage to secure employment Opportunities in major Universities, corporations and international organs; they used this opportunities having known their subordinate status to champion Africans agendas and giving the clear state of African history. The migrants to a point had identity crisis they were not Africans, Euro-Africans or afro Americans.The resolution of this identity crisis by these recent migrants scholars manifest itself in there lives and the writing of these academic; The comparator intelligentsia The post colonial critics The progressive exile Members of the comparator intelligentsia class used their color, origin and education to serve neither publication as spokesmen and intellectual henchmen for international organizations like World Bank as consultants to financial institutions, they help in adopting globalization ideologies for example free market as solution to African development crisis.This collaboration between black scholars and international capital in the exploitation of African resources has along history dating back to the use of ex-slaves like Lauded Equine and free black Americans like; Alexander Crummier Edward blended They were sent as special envoy and settlers in the colonization of Liberia and Sierra Leone. They also played the role of middle men by serving as conduits of Resurrection thought for African consumption via adoption of latest trend in the Euro-American perspective such as post modernism.

Representative examples include; Shame APIPA (1992 ) In my father’s house Africa in the philosophy of culture Muddied IVY (1997) The invention of Africa, philosophy and order of Africa The progressive exile on the other hand uses Knowledge and skills they learnt n the west to liberate their fellows while maintaining their African identity in serving of Africans. Nagging WA Thong comes out as a key progressive exile. Today Nagging is as the forefront of the debate about the role of indigenous languages in the struggle for decentralization.In conclusion African history can broadly be seen to have taken three perspective trend; the pre-colonial perspective, colonial perspective and Nationalist perspective. 1. The pre colonial view of African history spring from the institution of slavery, the Europeans (white consul) Associated Africans as Hams descendants, uncivilized group of people who had no history and exhibited no movement at all. They were seen as servants who were doomed to serve other people.

The whole literature of Africa by the Europeans aimed at justifying the exploitation of Africa for economic gain while they (Colonizers) remain undisturbed by Christian doubts as to the moral issues involved. 2. The colonialist perspective of historiography Resurrection in nature. During the colonial period (19th and 20th century) Europe held sway over other continents, his dominant role influenced the view of world’s history. The colonial historiography was false and obscure in nature as it hid the true facts.It tended to idealize the state and justify the Europeans Endeavourer to civilize the pre capital African economies. For along time this kind of view remained having been implanted in School system through the colonial education.

3. The nationalist perspective of historiography gained ground significantly after the 2nd world war; it emphasized Affrication view of Africans scholars. They have insisted that contrary to Resurrection view, Africa had a past worth studying and that general laws of human development were to foresight to Africa, but made Africans to progress along general path.They say that contain itty and change have been part and parcel of African History. They began to look at history from an interdisciplinary view combining the histories of agriculture, arbitration, and social economic relation. The foundation of new university in Africa gave a boost to this development of decolonize African history. Elsewhere research centers were established Europe and Africa; this went along way to ensure recognition of African Historiography throughout the world.