African historiography is a branch of historiography involving the study of the theories, methods, sources, and interpretations used by scholars to construct histories of Africa. Most African societies recorded their history via oral tradition, resulting in a lack of written records documenting events before European colonialism. African historiography has therefore lent itself to contemporary methods of historiographical study, the utilisation of oral sources, and the incorporation of evidence derived from various auxiliary disciplines, differentiating it from other continental areas of historiography due to its multidisciplinary nature.
Oral historians utilised various sources from their communities in crafting socially-consolidated histories which were then passed down through generations, with traditions serving as contemporary documents of messages from the past. Early written history about Africa was largely undertaken by outsiders, each of which had their own biases. Colonial historiography was Eurocentric and propagated racist theories such as the Hamitic hypothesis. African historiography became organised in the mid-20th century, and initially involved the refutation of colonial narratives. Nationalist histories sought to generate patriotism and sustain the multi-ethnic nation states, and African historiography saw a movement towards utilising oral sources in a multidisciplinary approach alongside archaeology and historical linguistics. Following growing pessimism about the fate of the continent, Marxist thought became popular, and contributed to a more critical study of colonialism. From 1981 UNESCO began publishing the General History of Africa, edited by specialists from across the continent. The 1980s saw universities struggle amid economic and political crises, resulting in the migration of many scholars (largely to the United States), and the discipline remains critically underfunded. Historians of Africa in the 21st century focus more on contemporary history than precolonial history, and are less ideological than their predecessors as the discipline has taken on a more pluralist form.
The concept of Africa There are vast amounts of ecological, cultural, linguistical, and religious diversity in Africa. Valentin Mudimbe notes that the idea of Africa was first made and used by non-Africans, particularly Europeans. The concept was appropriated by diasporic Africans during abolitionist movements in the 19th century as intellectuals sought an "African homeland", with their removal from the continent enabling them to view it as a whole. This planted the roots of pan-Africanist thought, however for most it was the shared experience of colonial rule and resistance to it that fostered a unified African identity.
History
Traditional oral and early written history In Africa, historiography has traditionally been undertaken by oral historians, who can range from professional specialists, such as the griots of West Africa, to amateur generalists, such as the bulaam ("men of memory") of the Kuba people. In accordance with African cosmology, African historical consciousness viewed historical change and continuity, order and purpose within the framework of human and their environment, the gods, and their ancestors. In African societies, the historical process is largely a communal one, with eyewitness accounts, hearsay, reminiscences, and occasionally visions, dreams, and hallucinations crafted into narrative oral traditions which are performed, sometimes accompanied by music, and transmitted through generations. In oral tradition, time is sometimes mythical and social, and ancestors were considered historical actors. Origin myths serve multiple purposes, helping to define a group's identity and forge sociocultural alliances, and provide the fulcrum on which a group's religious ideology rests. Traditions can be recorded in the form of epics (which use formal speech), narratives (everyday speech), and poetry (which tends to be formulaic and memorised word for word). They offer a socially-consolidated history, and often include the origins of institutions, embedding political authority. In stateless societies, clan histories predominated.
Some African writing systems have been developed or adapted in ancient and recent history. One of the most notable ancient scripts were the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt, which are attested to have been used for historical records from . Following the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, historians were able to decipher hieroglyphs and access a new field of Ancient Egyptian history, however this work was undertaken predominantly by European historians. Some ancient external sources include Periplus of the Erythraean Sea () and Ptolemy's Geography (). In Abyssinia, during the Aksumite period ( – CE) histories were inscribed in Geʽez on stelae, thrones, and obelisks, and recounted a ruler's reign, recording various historical events such as military campaigns, diplomatic missions, and acts of philanthropy. From the 13th century, written imperial chronicles predominated, such as the Chronicles of the Wars of Amda Sion (14th c.). Following the spread of Islam, there are also plenty of written records in Arabic from Islamic scholars such as al-Masudi, al-Idrisi, Leo Africanus, al-Bakri, Ibn Battuta, and Ibn Furtu. They included observations of local societies, and sometimes utilised oral sources, embodying bias towards Muslim rulers while denigrating non-believers. As of 2005, Turkish-language sources remained largely unused as no-one had systematically explored the Istanbul archives, with the same being true of North African national archives. In West Africa and the Swahili coast Africans used Arabic or adapted the Arabic script into Ajami for their languages, and works were written in Akan, Fula, Yoruba, Hausa, and Swahili. Some were chronicles which literarily recorded oral tradition, such as the Kilwa Chronicle (16th c.), Timbuktu Chronicles (17th c.), Kitab Gonja (18th c.), Funj Chronicle (early 19th c.), and Kano Chronicle ().
European written records about the coastal regions proliferated during their exploration of Africa from the 15th century. They typically had strong prejudicial and Christian biases, and portrayed an exotic image of Africa, primitive and often at war with itself. Most 16th-century records were written in Portuguese, which the Portuguese strictly censored so as to protect their monopoly on African business from trading rivals, and most were destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Records through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries were mostly written in English, French, Dutch, and later, German. Authors aimed to promote trade, and so included information on trade goods, routes, markets, control of trade, sources of supply and production techniques etc. (important for economic history). Some historical works include Job Ludolf's Historia aethiopica (1681), Silva Corrêa's Historia de Angola (1782), and Archibald Dalzel's History of Dahomy (1793). There are also sources from European Christian missionaries (especially in the 19th century). However reporting on African traditional religions was poor, and authors often sought to 'expose' perceived 'errors' and 'barbarisms'. A minority of authors learnt African languages and made meaningful records important for social history. Amid the Enlightenment in the 18th century, European attitudes towards other cultures began to change. Hegel's now infamous statements in his Lectures on the Philosophy of World History (1837) encapsulated 19th-century orthodox European thought about African history.
Colonial historiography Since most African societies used oral tradition to record their history, there was little written history of the continent prior to the colonial period. Colonial histories focussed on the exploits of soldiers, colonial administrators, and "colonial figures", using limited sources and written from an entirely European perspective, ignoring the viewpoint of the colonised under the pretence of white supremacism. Colonial historians considered Africans racially inferior, uncivilised, exotic, and historically static, viewing their colonial conquest as proof of Europe's claims to superiority, reinforced by social Darwinist principles. The topic was initially left to ex-members of colonial regimes who had a rapport with kings and elites, however imperial/colonial history later entered into the fringe of the profession. Some works include Charles Lucas's The Partition & Colonization of Africa (1922) and Gabriel Hanotaux's Histoire des Colonies Françaises et de l'Expansion de la France dans le Monde (1930). The most widespread genre of colonial narrative involved the Hamitic hypothesis, which claimed the inherent superiority of light-skinned people over dark-skinned people. Colonisers considered only "Hamitic Africans" to be "civilised", and by extension all major advances and innovations in Africa were thought to derive from them. Oral sources were deprecated and dismissed by most historians, who claimed that Africa had no history other than that of Europeans in Africa. Some colonisers took interest in the other viewpoint and attempted to produce a more detailed history of Africa using oral sources and archaeology, however they received little recognition at the time. The liberal tradition, championed by figures such as William Miller Macmillan, sought to criticise colonialism and racial segregation. The 1940s and '50s saw the study of African history split from colonial history, as institutions were set up such as the School of Oriental and African Studies by the University of London, producing a new generation of Africanists.
Some indigenous works by local historians during this period include Carl Christian Reindorf's The History of the Gold Coast and Asante (1895), Samuel Johnson's History of the Yorubas (w. 1897, p. 1921), Apollo Kaggwa's The Kings of Buganda (1901), Musa Kamara's Zuhūr al-Basātīn (w. 1920s), Jacob Egharevba's A Short History of Benin (1934), Akiga Sai's History of the Tiv (1935), Paul Mbuya's Luo kitgi gi timbegi (1938), Samuel Josia Ntara's Mbiri ya Achewa (1944/5), and John Nyakatura's Kings of Bunyoro-Kitara (1947). In North Africa, the 1930s saw indigenous schools of historians established in light of growing nationalist and modernist Islamic movements. The Uganda Society founded The Uganda Journal in 1934 which aimed to increase knowledge about Uganda and preserve oral traditions. There were various proto-nationalist historians who fiercely combatted notions of European superiority, such as A. B. Horton, E. W. Blyden, J. W. Sarbah, J. E. Casely-Hayford, and J. B. Danquah, however their works resembled propaganda and today hold less authority than some of those already mentioned.
Postcolonial historiography
The struggles for independence in the 1950s and '60s were mirrored by a movement towards decolonising African history. The new African elite now had the daunting task of achieving in the historical field what they had done in the political one. Historians' post-colonial works were characterised by their nationalism and Afrocentrism, aiming to reverse colonial thought and refute colonial narratives which degraded their culture. At the time, many did not think African history was possible and it was common for enthusiasm to be dismissed. The period saw a methodological revolution regarding the unprecedented widespread use of oral sources, alongside auxiliary disciplines.