When people here in Ghana or in my home country Germany ask what course I study and I answer “history", one can most often watch similar reactions: a quizzical look and some sceptic questions like “Aha, and what for?”. It seems to be a global phenomenon: Many people tend to underestimate the value of history as an academic discipline. And I can’t even blame them...

Historiography is supposed to not only inform about the past and link us with our roots but also to give critical orientation for our contemporary life and future generations. An important task and a high claim which history can only fulfill through keeping up with the times.

In the last century globalization has risen to become an omnipresent phenomenon concerning each and every society, culture and person living on our planet. Almost all challenges humanity faces today are of global concern. Here comes the problem: We are living in a globalized world, but the way most European historians think about it remains domesticized or rather, purely national oriented. 

Studying history at a European university does primarily mean studying Western history. African, Asian or South American history are often treated like accompanying symptoms and are only of interest when it comes to any connection with developments in European history. From the viewpoint of such a narrow-minded attitude, African history “starts” with the European overseas expansion. Thereby, the Europeans appear as protagonists, as active discoverers and conquerors whereas the Africans are presented as passive beings, getting exploited, enslaved and colonized. 

A fatal error in reasoning. I believe, that European historiography must overcome those old patterns. It is time to take off the eurocentristic glasses and to attach that value to African history that it actually deserves. I consider it as important for European historians not to forget, that European colonialism was a defining but very short chapter in African history, compared to the long and various history of the African continent.

One must also clarify that Africans were not playing a passive, subaltern role in African- European history but that they had agency: there were different forms of resistance, struggles for independence as well as African people arranging themselves with the colonizers and even profiting, for example through gaining a high position in the indirect rule system. The same applies to the other side: Europeans were not only active colonizers but also influenced by the African environment, just take the widespread phenomenon of European settlers “going native” as an example.

Considering such transcultural interactions, the European historiography could manage to overcome the old national perspective on African history. Through thinking in a more transcultural and global way, historians would accommodate themselves to the requirements of the 21st century and fulfill their purpose for society again: to give critical orientation for our contemporary life in a globalized world though knowledge of past times.

Source: http://www.ghana-weblog.de (Carolin Liebisch) 

Carolin Liebisch is a 22 years old German student and majoring in History at the University of Heidelberg. She is spending two months in Ghana, to work on her Bachelor Thesis and to do a journalistic internship at Dawuro Broadcasting Systems.

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