African historiography is a branch of

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians h ...

concerning the

African continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, its peoples, nations and variety of written and non-written histories. It has differentiated itself from other continental areas of historiography due to its multidisciplinary nature, as Africa’s unique and varied methods of recording history have resulted in a lack of an established set of historical works documenting events before

European colonialism The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turkish people, Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the mode ...

. As such, African historiography has lent itself to contemporary methods of historiographical study and the incorporation of

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

and

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

analysis. The chronology of African recorded history encompasses many movements of art, African nations and dialects, and its history has permeated through many mediums. History concerning much of the pre-

colonialist Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

African continent is depicted through art or passed down through word of mouth. As European colonization emerged, the cultural identity and socio-political structure of the continent drastically shifted, and the written documentation of Africa and its people was dominated by European academia, which was later acknowledged and criticized in post-colonialist movements of the 20th century. African-civilizations-map-pre-colonial

Antiquity

Sub-Saharan Africa, due to its expanse, varied climate, migratory populations, and sometimes harsh geography, caused a variety of cultural groups to lack incentives to collectivize and urbanize to the extent of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

or the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

in antiquity. As a result, much of the African continent did not produce as many extant works (either written or archaeological) as the northernmost kingdoms and nations of Africa. Much of the modern depiction of Africa preceding written history is through

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

antiquities Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...

. Excluding Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs and the Ge’ez script, a large part of the African continent would not have a means of writing or recording history until the

common era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

. This presents a challenge for historians in deciphering the history of the continent with certain people and nations yet to begin recording history.

Early written history

Many African

writing systems A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...

have been developed in ancient and recent history, and the continent holds a large quantity of varied orthographies. One of the most notable ancient languages were the

Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

, which were often found carved into walls, as decoration on objects of religious significance and written on wood and

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...

. Hieroglyphs, like many other ancient African dialects, underwent a considerable period of time where there was no verifiable translation. The

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...

, discovered in 1799, would allow historians to effectively decipher hieroglyphs and access a new field of Ancient Egyptian history. This field was undertaken predominantly by European historians.

Colonial historiography

Colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

History arrived with the discovery and colonization of Africa and involved the study of Africa and its history by European academics and historians. Due to the relative establishment of European academia compared to Africa during the period, as well as the domination of European powers across the continent, African History was written from an entirely European perspective under the pretense of Western Superiority. This predilection stemmed from the perceived technological superiority of European nations and the decentralization of the African continent with no nation being a clear power in the region, as well as a perception of Africans as racially inferior. Another factor was the lack of an established body of collective African history created in the continent, there being instead a multitude of different dialects, cultural groups and fluctuating nations as well as a diverse set of mediums that document history other than written word. This led to a perception by Europeans that Africa and its people had no recorded history and had little desire to create it. The historical works of the time were predominantly written by scholars of the various European powers and were confined to individual nations, leading to disparities in style, quality, language and content between the many African nations. These works mostly concerned the activities of the European powers and centered on events concerning economic and military endeavors of the powers in the region. Examples of British works were

Lilian Knowles Lilian Charlotte Anne Knowles (née Tomn; 1870–1926) was a British historian and Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the 1920s. She was the first female Dean of the Economic History Faculty in the University ...

' The Economic Development of the British Overseas Empire and Allan McPhees The Economic Revolution in British West Africa, which discuss the economic achievements of the British empire and the state of affairs in African nations controlled by Britain.

Institutions

African historiography became organized at the academic level in the mid-20th century. The School of Oriental Studies opened at the University of London in 1916. It became the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1938 and has always been at the center of scholarship on Africa. In the U.S. Northwestern University launched its Program of African Studies in 1948. The first scholarly journals were founded: ''Transactions of the Gold Coast & Togoland Historical Society'' (1952); ''Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria'' (1956); ''The Journal of African History'' (1960); ''Cahiers d’études africaines'' (1960); and ''African Historical Studies'' (1968). Specialists grouped together in the

African Studies Association The African Studies Association (ASA) is a US-based association of scholars, students, practitioners, and institutions with an interest in the continent of Africa. Founded in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North ...

(1957); the

African Studies Association of the UK The African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK) formed in 1963 "to advance African studies, particularly in the United Kingdom, by providing facilities for the interchange of information and ideas and the co-ordination of activities ...

(1963); the Canadian Association of African Studies/Association Canadienne des Etudes Africaines (1970).

North Africa

European imperialism escalated in North Africa after 1800. This included the British seizure of control of Egypt (1882). France operated a large expansionist program in Egypt (1798), Algeria (1830); Tunisia (1881); and East Morocco (1912); as well as building and operating the Suez Canal (1854+). Spain fought the Moroccan War (1859/60), and sent settlers to Northern Morocco (1912). Italy focused on Libya (1911) and sent settlers to Algeria. Imperialism was reversed in dramatic fashion in the Algerian War (1954-1962), the Suez Crisis (1956) as well as the independence of Libya (1951), Morocco (1956) and Tunisia (1956).

Modernization models 1945–1990

Modernization models were typical interpretive structures in African historiography from the end of World War II into the 1980s. For example, Philip Curtin argued in 1981 that the main concerns of historians ought to be with: :civilizations, institutions, structures: agrarian and metallurgical techniques, arts and crafts, trade networks, the conception and organization of power, religion and religious and philosophical thought, the problem of nations and pre-nations, techniques of modernization, and so on.

Ethnohistory and anthropology

Anthropological work of Africa involves many fields of anthropology including

cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portma ...

social anthropology Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

and

linguistic anthropology Linguistic anthropology is the Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary study of how language influences social life. It is a branch of anthropology that originated from the endeavor to document endangered languages and has grown over the past cen ...

in the pursuit of contextualizing and uncovering the human elements of history and is referred to as

Ethnohistory Ethnohistory is the study of cultures and indigenous peoples customs by examining historical records as well as other sources of information on their lives and history. It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups that may or may n ...

. A methodology originally employed in the study of

indigenous cultures Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, it has transitioned not only into the general field of anthropology but has been largely adopted by practitioners of history and the movement of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. From its focus on indigenous cultures and the analysis of the anthropological origins of a people rather than their political relations (which would be otherwise be dominated by their relevance to European nations), Ethnohistory approaches history from a point preceding European colonization, and allows for historians to study the implications of the

Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...

with a greater understanding of the

social stratification Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As ...

of African nations before and after colonialism. The depiction of these nations would go from being static to dynamic, documenting a progression from the time before and after the arrival of European nations, which is in part accomplished by a transition from the study of what has been done, to the means, methods and reasons of the actions undertaken.

Post-colonialist historiography

Post-colonialist historiography studies the relationship between European colonialism and domination in Africa and the construction of African history and representation. It has roots in

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

, the construction of cultures from the

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Arabian The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

n world in a patronizing manner stemming from a sense of Western superiority, first theorized by

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''White ...

. A general perception of Western superiority throughout European academics and historians prominent during the height of colonialism led to the defining traits of colonial historical works, which post-colonialists have sought to analyse and criticize.

William Macmillan and the effect of colonialism

William Miller Macmillan William Miller Macmillan (1 October 1885 in Aberdeen, Scotland – 23 October 1974 in Long Wittenham, Berkshire, England) is regarded as a founder of the liberal school of South African historiography and as a forerunner of the radical school o ...

is a historian and post-colonialist thinker. His historical work, ''Africa Emergent'' (1938), critiqued colonial rule and sought for the democratization of African nations in seeking African representation in governments. The work not only condemns colonial rule, but also considers the perspectives of and the effect of colonialism on the African people, a considerable difference from the works’ contemporaries. He was a founder of the liberal school of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n historiography and as a forerunner of the radical school of historiography that emerged in the 1970s. He was also a critic of colonial rule and an early advocate of self-government for colonial territories in Africa and of what became known as development aid.

Edward Said and ''Orientalism''

Said and his book ''

'' (1978) had a major impact on

post-colonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

studies. It introduced the theory of

and deconstructed the methods in which foreign cultures were distorted and patronized through western representation. One result was the sharp decline in use of modernization models based upon the European transition from traditionalism to modernity.K. Humayun Ansari, "The Muslim world in British historical imaginations:‘re-thinking Orientalism’?." ''British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies'' 38.01 (2011): 73-93 at 88–92
online

Contemporary historiography

Acknowledgement and acceptance of African nations and peoples as individuals free of European domination has allowed African history to be approached from new perspectives and with new methods. Africa has lacked a defined means of communication or academic body due to its variety of cultures and communities, and the plurality and diversity of its many peoples means a historiographical approach that confines itself to the development and activity of a singular people or nation incapable of capturing the comprehensive history of African nations without a vast quantity of historical works. This quantity and diversity of history that has yet to be documented is better suited to the contemporary historiographical movements that incorporate the social sciences:

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

and other fields that closer examine the human element of History rather than constrain it to

political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, social ...

References

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Regions

* Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku. ''Themes in West Africa's History'' (2006) 323pp. * Burton, Andrew, and Michael Jennings. "Introduction: The emperor's new clothes? Continuities in governance in late colonial and early postcolonial East Africa." ''International Journal of African Historical Studies'' 40.1 (2007): 1-25
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