In Defense Of History
As a background to this piece, it is important to underline before diving into the nitty gritty of this particular intervention that the above title is not mine. It was first used by an English historian Richard Evans, as a title of his 307 paged book published in the year 1997.
In that book, Richard Evans offers a defence of the importance of his craft. At a time of deep scepticism about our ability to learn anything from the past, even to recapture any serious sense of past cultures and ways of life, Evans shows us why history is both possible and necessary. His demolition of the wilder claims of post-modern historians, who deny the possibility of any realistic grasp of history, seeks to be witty and well-balanced. He takes us into the historians' workshop to show us just how good history gets written, and explains the deadly political dangers of losing a historical perspective on the way we live our lives.
But very recently, there appear signs that Richard Evans shares similar thoughts about history with Hon. (Mrs.) Rose Ezewu, the newly appointed Delta State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, by Senator (DR) Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration in the state.
Away from the fact that she upon assumption of duty as Commissioner in charge of the ministry, called on all hands to be on deck towards driving the education sector to enviable height in line with the SMART Agenda of Senator (Dr.) Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration, the Honourable Commissioner appears to have scored a very high mark on her first day in office when she noted that with the approval of the governor, there was need to critically appraise the curriculum development in order to encourage teaching and learning of History in schools.
She indeed spoke the minds of not just Deltans but Nigerians as a whole.
Also, qualifying the development as interesting is that about two years ago, precisely in June 2019, the Federal Government, in a similar style through Mr Sonny Echono, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja, announced that the Federal Government has directed all primary and secondary schools across the country to immediately implement the teaching of history as a stand-alone subject from the next academic calendar. It is with immediate effect, he added.
But the excitement elicited by that announcement was however short lived as controversy still surrounds the Federal Government’s decision to remove history from the country’s basic education curriculum. Going by reports, the removal, which became effective from the 2009/2010 academic session, was premised on students shunning the subject, thinning job prospects for history graduates, and dearth of history teachers.
Even as Nigerians reflect on this too impressive decision, there exists evidence to believe that it is not only in Nigeria that the study of History has suffered an ill fate.
As noted in a report by historians and educational experts, Dr. Samaila Suleiman, of the Department of History, Bayero University, Kano, ever since the birth of history as an intellectual pursuit in the classical Greco-Roman tradition, it has encountered and endured manifold epistemological and social challenges. It has survived the naturalism of the scientific revolution; the cultural arrogance of the Enlightenment period, the nihilism of Postmodernism, and the bellicosities of Neo-liberal ahistoricism … In neo-liberal thinking, the value of knowledge is measured in terms of tangible deliverables. This is the governing philosophy of capitalist consumerism. With the ascendancy of science and technology as the only reliable ventures that could guarantee material prosperity, history and other associated disciplines are treated as “endangered species.
Now let’s look at the particulars of the claim that renders Honourable Commissioner’s vote for history as alluring.
First and very fundamental is that the world is in agreement that some knowledge of history is useful to the scientist, the economist or the student of literature or philosophy on the grounds that no science or art is static. This argument by strategic thinkers has its background on the premise that historical science begins with reaction to the imagined happenings of the past. History, however, is the reconstruction of the past; by, and for those who are living the life of those who are dead. It is a tool of all disciplines and the key to wisdom. People who ignore the lessons of history are in a dilemma.
Secondly, a society which has lost belief in its capacity to progress in the future will quickly cease to concern itself with the progress (or retrogress) in the past. Many believe that the essence of history is not just to retell neither the past nor the activities of our heroes. The subject is employed for the greater improvement of the society. It is a presupposition of history that man is capable of profiting from the experience of his predecessors, and that progress in history unlike, evolution in nature, rests on the transmission of acquired assets. These assets include both material possessions and the capacity to master, transform and utilize one’s environment.
Against this backdrop, Nigerians with critical interests have, at different times and places argued that allowing history in Nigeria schools (Primary and secondary) could be a possible escape from multi-faceted challenges bedeviling the country.
In the same vein, apart from the time-honoured saying that any nation, group or an individual that fails to absorb lessons from history, is in the historian’s phrase doomed to repeat the mistakes, the usefulness of history in human existence cannot be overemphasized as it without any shadow of doubt helped the students(youths) to ‘take in vast amounts of information, teach them how to write and communicate those ideas effectively, expose the students to accept the fact that many problems have no clear-cut answer, while helping to cultivate flexibility and a willingness to change their minds as they go about solving problems in whatever field they ultimately choose.
Next to assisting in knowledge about people, societies, and information on how people and societies live and behave, is that knowledge of history help immensely in equipping citizens to be both good leaders and good followers that cannot be deceived. For without such knowledge, one may be extremely educated and at the same time be ill-informed or misinformed.
To explain this point, it is on the good ground that between 1930s and 1940s, many members of the Nazi party in Germany were extremely well educated but their knowledge of literature, mathematics, philosophy, and others simply empowered them to be effective Nazis. No matter how educated they were, no matter how well they cultivated their intellect; they were still trapped in a web of totalitarian propaganda that mobilized for evil purpose- war. They supported the Second World War simply because they were ill-equipped with history; they had no knowledge that War, though legal violence has never in the history of humanity solved any problem.
Further explanation as to what the nation stands to gain from this decision, and its usefulness to Leadership is the words of Lee Kuan Yew, a former Prime Minister of Singapore. He said; between the 1940s and 1960s, the forte of British academics was in a serious study of the past, not of the present or the future, noting that great leadership knowledge is gained by probing the past events (history) and using the knowledge derived to tackle the present.
Today, our inability as a people to frankly investigate our past via history, to enable us correct our backward attitudes developed during the colonial era now contributes to why we are not marching forward; but groping and stumbling, divided and confused.
Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via;[email protected]/08032725374.