Historical significance and the challenges of African historiography: analysis of teacher perspectives

ABSTRACT

The history, people, and culture of many African nations have been written, projected, and interpreted in different ways. The contents and variability in the early accounts about African nations, which were based largely on external viewpoints and interests which barely represented the realities in Africa, created confusions about African historiography and affected how Africans, their cultures, and histories were perceived in Western cultures. Drawing on the literature on African historiography, this paper examines Ghanaian History teachers’ perspectives of historically significant events in Ghana’s past, and how these perspectives translate into classroom practice. Findings demonstrate teachers’ consciousness and belief in traditional African cultural practices and the unique modes of preserving and doing African history. The paper makes a case for how African historiography and History education should look different to those conducted in Western contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Historical significance
• historiography
• collective memory
• African history
• relevance
• history education
• Ghana

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The term History (with capital ‘H’), unless beginning a sentence, is used in this paper to refer to the school subject.

2. The term history (with a lower case ‘h’) represents the academic/professional study of the past. The term refers to what historians construct from the past. It is used in this paper to refer to the discipline or field of scholarship itself.

3. Ghana (then known as Gold Coast) became a British colony in 1874 and won its independence in 1957.

4. British West Africa collectively refers to the West African countries that were colonised by the British – Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Nigeria.

5. All names of schools and participants are pseudonyms

6. United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was the first organised political party founded in 1947 with the aim to achieve independence in the shortest possible time. The UGCC was defeated in the 1951 elections by the Convention People’s Party which presented a more pressing message – self-governance now.

7. NPP – New Patriotic Party

8. NDC – National Democratic Congress