Main Topic: METHODS
USED IN WRITING AFRICAN HISTORY
Sub Topic 1:
Personal enquiry and interview Approach
Sub Topic 2:
Inter-disciplinary Approach
Sub Topic 3: Review
of written materials
Objectives (By the end of
the Lesson students will be able to):
1.
discuss
the various methods used in gathering materials for writing African history.
2.
explain
how the personal enquiry method is applied in the writing of African history.
What is Historiography?
Historiography
deals with the writing of history, especially, the writing of history based on
the critical examination of sources, the selection of particulars from the
authentic materials, and the synthesis of particulars into a narrative that
will stand the test of critical methods.
Methods used for gathering/collecting
information for writing African history
To collect data for the reconstruction of
African history, the historian must not rely solely on written sources or
non-documentary sources but rather the following methods must be employed to
check biases, prejudices and exaggerations.
1. Personal
enquiry and interview
One method of gathering information from
non-documentary sources of African history is interviewing of knowledgeable
persons about the culture of a particular community. This is to say that the
historian must interview people about the information of the past such as
eye-witnesses or traditional historians like court linguists, older court
officials and the elderly. The historian can record these interviews and later
play, write out and analyze the information given.
2. Questionnaire
To get the best results of collecting data
for writing African history, a carefully composed questionnaire should be used
which must cover the political, economic, social, religious and technological
aspects. In this situation, a series of well-structured questions are given out
to persons who know about the past to solicit for information. The responses to
these questions are gathered and analyzed by the historian in order to draw a
reasonable conclusion.
3. Personal
Observation or eye witness account
Through personal observation by visiting
places of historical importance like slave sites, castles, forts etc. and
personally recording events like festivals, funerals and the like, important
findings can result in the collection of data for writing African history. Such
details are necessary since they constitute first-hand information as the
events happened before their own eyes i.e. eye witness account. Such accounts
can be compared and questions are asked on them to get a reliable view of what
actually happened in the past
4. Inter-disciplinary
approach
Another method of gathering information
about African history is the interdisciplinary approach. Cooperation with
scholars in other fields of knowledge gives information for African history.
The historian has to cooperate with specialists like the linguists,
archeologists, botanists, ethnographers among others to obtain materials that
can be used to reconstruct African history. The researcher works together with
these scholars to gather important information to draw valid conclusions.
5. Review
of written materials
In writing African history, one can use
the review method to get information by reviewing the written sources such as
books, newspapers, journals, broadcasts, diaries, manifestoes, and private
letters among others, by reviewing the research through written sources both
primary and secondary for information which they examine and cross-check. Even
though these written records have shortcomings and inadequacies, they can be
reviewed by the historian to ensure an accurate reflection of the past. This
helps to produce unbiased history which is backed by evidence.
In
conclusion, we can deduce that both documentary and non-documentary evidence
must be used to complement each other in the writing of African history. Since
both are the work of human beings, one cannot be more reliable than the other
since people tend to be subjective, biased and impressionistic.
How the personal inquiry method is
applied in the writing of African history.
The
personal inquiry method is the process of gathering information through a
careful and objective inquiry and observation. It is one of the several methods
historians or researchers tend to apply in gathering information from
non-documentary sources in the writing of African history.
Under
this method, the researcher seeks out persons and culture of the community that
he wants to write about. This to a large extent, helps to remove biases and
inconsistencies that might have characterized earlier European account such as
the wrong notion before 1930’s that African did not have its own Civilisation
or history worth recording before their arrival. This method could be used, for
example, to write the histories of the Asante or the Akyem as knowledgeable
persons like Akyeame (Linguists), abrafo (Executioners) and chiefs could be
identified, consulted and interview in order for the researcher to come out
with good material or information in the writing of African history.
Again,
for the purpose of convenience and effective interaction the researcher then
arranges interviews with the people identified as very knowledgeable in the
history and culture of the community.
Moving
on, the researcher must carefully design a questionnaire in order to get the
best results. The questionnaire must be design to cover the whole range of
human activity, namely: political, economic, Social and Technological. The
questionnaire is then given to individuals who are likely to have some in-depth
knowledge on what the researcher is looking for. The researcher would then analyse
the responses given and come up with what could be described as a good
material.
Moreover,
the answers to questions may be written or recorded on tape to be used for
transcription and analyses at a later time. A researcher must record as many
variants (versions) of a tradition as possible. For example, in writing about
the history of the Akan people, the different versions of the historical
accounts of the origin must be collected, recorded, and cross-checked in order to
get rid of possible biases.
Past Questions.
1. Discuss
the major methods used in gathering information for the writing of African
history. (WASSCE MAY/JUNE 2011)
2. Examine
how the personal enquiry method is applied in the writing of African history.
(WASSCE MAY/JUNE 2013).
3. List
any three methods used for writing of
African history.
(WASSCE MAY/JUNE 2014)
4. Name
three sources used in writing the
history of Ghana.
(WASSCE MAY/JUNE 2017)
5. In
what five ways can the pre-colonial
history of Ghana be reconstructed?
(WASSCE NOV/DEC 2017)
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