Using history more effectively

[RWalker]

Revolution requires the study of virtually every discipline. Clearly it requires a serious and permanent study (and application) of the fields of philosophy, social and industrial psychology, the law, political economics and associated areas, organizational (including communication) science, cultural studies generally, and
military science.

Among the primary fields of study for the purposes of revolution is history. History is the essential method for interpreting the past as a tool of understanding the present and of speculating on the possible and probable outcomes of the future.

As such I have long believed that one thing we must do is develop an African historiography oriented to the objective of Pan-Africanism. Historiography, for those who are not familiar with the term, can be loosely defined as the mechanics of history, what sources are used, what was/is the method used and the biases of the writer/researcher, who or what societal sector was the history intended to influence, what were the dominant social, political and economic influences at the time the history was written and so forth.

Clearly most of us use historiographical methods all the time in our approach to history. For example we know intuitively that the history of Africa from the point of view of a writer in the employ of King Leopold of Belgium would differ radically from the history of Africa as understood by Du Bois or even a Basil Davidson.

As this is the case I have long advocated that we should develop a definitive historiographic system peculiar to Pan-Africanism, that is particular to the struggle for the liberation and unification of Africa in such a manner that the best of African society is reinforced, a society that could rightfully claim descent from a history that stretches from the era of the fabled Table of the Sun" of ancient Merotic Ethiopian society to the noble goals of the revolutionary Pan-Africanists responsible for the Conference of Independent African States and the All African Peoples Conference of the nineteen-fifties.