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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | African Historiographical Traditions from the Earliest Times to the Second World War: An Analytical Survey |
Author: | Ajaegbo, D.I. |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | Transafrican Journal of History |
Volume: | 19 |
Pages: | 139-151 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | historiography History and Exploration History, Archaeology Historical analysis |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328680 |
Abstract: | Oral traditions, embodied in myth, songs, poetry, oral history, etc., constituted the earliest method of recording and transmitting history in Africa. Africa's historical consciousness received a tremendous impetus with the advent of written traditions in some parts of the continent, notably Egypt c. 3000 BC, and the Igbo and Cross River peoples of Nigeria, who used a system of writing called the 'nsibidi'. Africa's historical traditions were subsequently influenced by both Islamic and Western historiographies from the Middle East and Europe respectively. This paper analyses the historical traditions of Africa from the earliest times to 1945. The author argues that African historiography was greatly influenced by both indigenous and external historical traditions. The interaction of these various historical traditions laid the foundation for the new African historiography which began with the process of decolonization and independence after the Second World War. Notes, ref. |