Lecture 1

Introduction to Sources of African History

Lecture Overview

In this lecture the focus shall be on the meaning of history, sources of history and the
relationship between the sources and history. The sources are the tools or aids that a
historian uses to reconstruct history.

Meaning of History

History, in simple terms, means the totality of past activities of man - social, political and
economic. History is a term of fact that amounts to knowledge. Historia is Greek word
which means inquiry or to investigate. History is also derived from a German word
Historie, whereby Histo means knowledge as opposed to mere compilation of past events.
History, therefore, means a systematic account of past events. Hence, history is organized
knowledge of the past events. Whereas Historie, in German, refers to what actually
happened, historicity debates the genuineness of the past events i.e. on the reconstructive
quality of events that occurred (Nyanchoga, et al 2008).

The nature of history takes different shades. The biblical version of history talks of
predestinations while the materialistic version notes that societies develop by
contradictions. There is also the cyclical view of history in which society goes through
the ups and downs phases as opposed to linear view which is progressive or incremental
(Nyanchoga, et al 2008).

Robin George Collingwood, a British philosopher and historian in the book, The Idea of
History (1961), states that history asks questions and answers them. These are questions
about the past of man; which means that history interprets evidence. African history
exists in the form of oral traditions transmitted from one generation to another.

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Historiography, on its part, is the art of writing history in a more systematic and
chronological order.

Sources of African History

Sources of history is not history but “information store house” that aids the historian in
the process of trying to reconstruct the past. Sources of history encompass every kind of
evidence: written word, spoken word, material artefacts and shape of landscape. There
are two types of sources namely primary and secondary sources (Nyanchoga, et al 2008).

Primary sources are sometimes defined as the original sources. Original sources refer to
evidence that is contemporary to the event. Examples include oral stories material
artefacts, memoirs, newspapers, parliamentary speeches, diaries, letters, Wills, public
records etc.

Secondary sources refer to written documents that have been subjected to interpretation.
Examples of secondary sources are written documents particularly books that have been
subject to interpretation and where primary sources were used.

It is important to note there is no clear distinction between primary and secondary

sources. The process varies with various authorities.

Relationship between History and the Sources of History

The relationship between history and sources of history takes the following
interpretations:

Professional view of history: sources of history are not history but must be interpreted,
shifted and corroborated to arrive at the authentic history of a people.

The work of an historian is to reconstruct the past from the sources. The work of the
historian is to get behind the sources and get the inner most thoughts of those behind
sources. Historians construct the interpretation of the past from the surviving remains.
These involve formulating a research question and identifying relevant sources of

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information. Secondly a critical approach to the sources by evaluating documents/
content and subjecting them to critical analysis to eliminate inaccuracies incompleteness
and prejudices One may apply regressive method that is reading backwards by
producing own ethnographical data to shed more light on the subject under
investigation.

According to idealism, historical knowledge is inherently subjective. You cannot detach

personal feelings and emotions from the object of study. The most idealistic exponent has
been Collingwood in his book, The Idea of History (1961). He maintains that all history
is essentially the history of thought, and that the historian’s duty is to re-enact in his or
her mind the thoughts and intentions of individuals of the past. He notes the following:

i) Primary sources available to historians are incomplete because a great deal of what
happened cannot be traced. What Historians record are thoughts and assumptions
of what happened.

ii) Sources are tainted by pure intentions of their authors, and historical records are
rigged in favour of the ruling class.

iii) Most of what is recorded as facts of history actually depended on inference.

Historians read between the lines, and reconstruct what happened from several
contradictory indications; but in none of these cases can historians observe the
facts in the way that scientist can. Historians generally have little time for this kind
of critique.

iv) Historians use imagination to re-create the past and fill in many gaps in the
surviving evidence. In doing so, historians express their personal preferences;
political and social beliefs as well as their assumptions. In this way they cease to
be objective.

According to Isidore Auguste Marie Francois Xavier Comte, a 19 th century French

positivistic philosopher, a historian can be objective by accumulating factual knowledge

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about the past: facts verified by applying a critical method to primary sources and those
facts will determine how the past should be explained. Historians can achieve a certain
level of objectivity by following historical methods of inquiry, which entails the
following: -

a) (i) Knowing what is history

(ii) Identifying historical sources

(iii) Characterizing historical sources

(iv) Analyzing or criticizing historical sources

(v) Presenting historical evidence

b) Historians should graduate from descriptive and narrative history. They should be
analytical when assessing contributions of personalities, rise and fall of kingdoms.

According to Leopold Von Ranke, a Germany historian of the 19 th century notes that a
historian should use a critical approach to the sources. The critical approach to the use of
sources is called external and internal criticisms.

External criticisms include, knowing the author of the document, in order to know
whether the document you are using is authentic or not. This is crucial when dealing with
archival documents that include legal documents, contracts and wills so as to detect
forgeries.

Internal criticisms include comparison of information from different sources of

information, for clarification purposes (Marwick, 1970).

According to Abu Zayd Abd-Ar-Rahman Ibn Khaldun, a medieval Islamic historian

(Rosenthal: 1971) we can arrive at historical truth by following the four steps listed below:

1. Use of numerous sources: Owing to the fact that Muslim historians had relied on
oral traditions in their reconstruction of the past, he proposed a methodology of

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writing history. He suggested the use of history’s auxiliary sciences namely
politics, economics, culture, environmental changes and technology; which
requires that a historian should have a wide knowledge.

2. Use of comparisons: Khaldun argued that historians should evaluate remote and
ancient materials through comparison with near or contemporary materials.

3. The historian should use logic in examining historical accounts and identify
whether evidence or data is actually a fabrication or not. He should also scrutinize
the authenticity of the evidence using his knowledge of the period, which the
document is describing. Hence Khaldun advanced both external and internal
criticisms of historical data.

4. Historians should use observation of the nature of things. This method of

observation is only applicable when a historian is studying an institution or a
current phenomenon. An institution that survived five hundred years ago may not
privilege the historian to assess the physical reality.

Philosophical view with regard to existentialism: the past exist independently and
irrespective of whether it is investigated or not

Existentialism is a term that belongs to intellectual history. Among the major

philosophers identified as existentialists were Karl Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, and
Martin Buber in Germany, Jean Wahl and Gabriel Marcel in France, the Spaniards José
Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno, and the Russians Nikolai Berdyaev and Lev
Shestov. The nineteenth century philosophers, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich
Nietzsche, came to be seen as precursors of the movement. It postulates that human
beings have their independent existence. Conversely the past has its own independent
existence.

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Traditional African perspective:

History cannot be detached from the sources. What is regarded as sources of history is
actually the history of a people.

You have come to the end of lecture one. In this lecture you have learnt the
following:
 the meaning of history
 primary and secondary sources
 The relationship between history and sources

Adenile Keyes C. and Vanisa, Jan. (1996). In pursuit of history: fieldwork an Africa. Oxford:
UK James Currey.

Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed.) 1981) A General History of Africa, Vol. I. California, USA: Heinemann.

Hrbek, I. (ed.) (1993). General History of Africa, Vol. III. East African Education Publishers,
1993.

Marwick, Arthur (1970) The Nature of History Nairobi:London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.

Nyanchoga et Al (2008) Aspects of African History Vol. One Catholic University Press

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