Facts are funny things when it comes to history.
You can mobilize completely contrary opinions about any war in history. I am thinking about the vietnam war, where I am more comfortable claiming that the opposing sides mobilized "facts" in completely contrary ways. But I think you would find it impossible to come to complete agreement on major historical events because you have to begin by deciding what were the determinant factors that led to conflict, and inevitably it becomes a question of who was to blame for what, or even how to decide what matters. What initiated the french revolution, for example? Great volumes of different opinions have been written on that. And how important was the iberian peninsula to the development of modern europe? Radically changed with new brilliant publications.
How many slaves were transported, who was responsible, etc etc
Do we imagine this hot issue of the biafran war would be any different?
We have people with strong opposing opinions on this list—no surprise. We are all learning from the exchanges. But one thing seems apparent: we cannot have agreement on the "facts" since they are not separate from all the historical questions posed above.
I honor historians greatly because they mobilize not facts but weighty interpretations of the material, of the archives, of what evidence they value and can dig up—as to other evidence they consider less crucial.
The best historians are not like wikipedia: they are people who open our eyes as to how to understand what took place, not whether something took place or not.
ken
Kenneth Harrow
Dept of English and Film Studies
Michigan State University
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/
On 28/06/2017, 10:57, "Chidi Anthony Opara" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com on behalf of chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:
>IBK, Professor Aluko,
>Facts are sacred, but interpretations are not. Interpretations of facts can be influenced by personal and/or group biases.
>
>CAO.
>
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