AFA 201 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

AFA 201 - Essay Example Even worse, some philosophers and historians argue that not all regions and people have a history to consider. In this regard, African history has been deemed to be relatively new especially after obscure remarks were made by some philosophers. From the onset of the nineteenth century, a German philosopher gave a seminar in which he declared that Africa is not a historical part of the world. He emphasized that it had no development or movement to exhibit to the rest of the world. A hundred years later, a Harvard professor Hugh Trevor-Roper shared Hegel’s sentiments and declared that the only history that Africa can share is Europeans in Africa. He further stated that the rest is largely darkness and that darkness is not a history subject. Such sentiments indicate a racist worldview and high ignorance of African achievements. However, besides racism, statements refuting that Africa holds a history are founded on crucial conception of historical sources that are valid. It was believed that development towards progress and changes in societies was to be written at the particular time of occurrence. This insistence on written materials depicted Africa’s past invisible to some historians and to the wider public. Most of the African societies had not developed writing systems prior to the nineteenth ant twentieth century (Taiwo 118). This reveals that there was a paucity of documented records that could be used by historians in the study of Africa’s history. The few documented details stemmed from observers from outside such as European travelers and merchants. Due to this inconsistency, it was widely held that there was no history in Africa. It was however discovered much later that indeed Africa had a rich past confined to Africa’s colonial history. After all, the missionaries, businessmen, and European colonial administrators kept detailed accounts of observations and activities on the continent of Africa (Oladale 319).