Dialogues: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship

On second thought, Biblical, Koranic or Islamic

could fall under "monotheistic " civilization.

A scholar recently argued that there are only three civilizations:

Monotheistic,Sonic and Indic.I asked the scholar

what about African. Civilization?

She argued that African civ falls under

monotheistic civ.

Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
Professor of History/African Studies, CCSU
Chief Editor- "Africa Update"
https://sites.ccsu.edu/afstudy/archive.html
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries
www.vimeo.com/gloriaemeagwali
www.africahistory.net
Founding Coordinator, African Studies, CCSU

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2025 6:39 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship

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Thanks, Gloria.

There is the Pharaonic civilization

Biblical civilization

Islamic civilization

African civilization, etc.

Get Outlook for iOS

From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2025 9:30:06 PM
To: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship

Toyin

What on earth is a "Biblical" civilization?

Is it a theocracy?

On another note, I interpreted

Moses as saying that history for

history's sake is the best model - until

he pivoted in the opposite direction

and contradicted that view.So I

came away from the article

confused.

But it could have been

jet lag or poor reading skills

on my part since Biko was

definitely provoked.

Seoul,Korea

From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2025 9:06 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship

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Falola wrote:

"You cannot insert your agenda into this essay. "

Democracy no be my agenda o, it dey for constitution. No be so?

Biko

On Wednesday 10 September 2025 at 06:07:32 GMT-4, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdullah@gmail.com> wrote:

Instrumentalization comes across as problematic.

On Wed, 10 Sep 2025 at 9:55 AM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdullah@gmail.com> wrote:

I hear you!!! Timely intervention.

On Wed, 10 Sep 2025 at 9:29 AM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Biko:

I don't understand why the parts marked in red and reproduced below should be part of the essay by Moses. You cannot insert your agenda into this essay. And Moses has been a consistent critique of Nigerian democracy. He can defend himself!

I commend Moses for this essay, in part because of the tone and in part because of the recognition he accords.

I won't use the word "instrumentalization" but the search for relevance and sustainability in the context of developing formations.

The Federal Constitution being non-monarchical while so-called 'ancient kingdoms' are mushrooming in every nook and cranny in Nigeria, thanks to Obasanjo's Local Government Reform Decree of 1976, is there a reason why you did not use your instrumentalism to push for the deepening of democracy and the abolition of monarchism? This was the advice given to a delegation of the then ruling PDP led by a Chief to the Chinese Communist Party. They asked how to make Nigeria leap forward like China and they were advised to go home and abolish all monarchical institutions. But they no fit.

You may have a conflict of interest in dermocratization because your book on the Miidle Belt obsessed about your ethnic monarchies and bragged that thjey used to conquer and rule over the democratic Igbo. Na lie!. Whatever, democracy is the future, instrumentalize that.

Well done, Moses.

Thanks for the reference to Dibua's 'Idols' which I will check out immediately. I like your full disclosure that instrumentalism is not peculiar to Africana historiography. I was expecting you to contrast instrumental history with history for history's sake. Is there such a thing as non-instrumental history? Being an instrument, it is up to the user how to deploy the tool. No be so?

Substantively, I was expecting you to reflect on the critique of nationalist historiography by Adiele Afrigbo in the collection of his papers edited by Falola. According to Afigbo, nationalist historians obsessed about monarchies in Africa as an instrument with which to prove to colonizers that Africans are every bit as civilized as Europeans because we had kings and queens of our own. Afigbo dismissed such obsessions and called on African historians to instrumentalize the industrial revolution by narrating the history of textile crafts-making industries, and by his own example, the revolution against the imposition of warrant chiefs by the colonizers on radically democratic republican polities like the Igbo - the women's war that Falola et al also documented.

Walter Rodney on page 55 of Groundings with my Brothers. called on Caribbean youth to stop obsessing about who will be king of reggae, carnival monarch, dancehall queen, soca monarch, and thing, but rather study the history of indigenous systems of democratic rule in Africa as things we should be proud to develop further.

The Federal Constitution being non-monarchical while so-called 'ancient kingdoms' are mushrooming in every nook and cranny in Nigeria, thanks to Obasanjo's Local Government Reform Decree of 1976, is there a reason why you did not use your instrumentalism to push for the deepening of democracy and the abolition of monarchism? This was the advice given to a delegation of the then ruling PDP led by a Chief to the Chinese Communist Party. They asked how to make Nigeria leap forward like China and they were advised to go home and abolish all monarchical institutions. But they no fit.

You may have a conflict of interest in dermocratization because your book on the Miidle Belt obsessed about your ethnic monarchies and bragged that thjey used to conquer and rule over the democratic Igbo. Na lie!. Whatever, democracy is the future, instrumentalize that.

Biko

On Tuesday 9 September 2025 at 10:17:03 GMT-4, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

Intriguing.

What's the title of Khaldun's book, the Maqadinnah or another one?

Toyin

On Tue, Sep 9, 2025, 11:47 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Same in Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda, where History relates to tourism and what is called "Heritage Studies," which I am reframing as Ancestral Studies.

I prefer focusing on the connections to the nation, such as how the nation can benefit, over the diaspora approach to connections with disciplines, which is about how the discipline, in Western logocentric terms, can expand.

The ancient question from the Biblical civilizations is: what is the purpose of knowledge? Prophet Moses articulated it much clearer, and the Prophet of Islam, Mohammed (May peace be upon him), integrated it into the fusion of state and religion. Khaldun developed the theory in the 14^th century, a book I always recommend people to read.

TF

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 5:34 AM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship

My newly published essay "The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship" may interest members of this list. It was published open access in the Journal of African History. Here's a link:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-history/article/new-instrumental-turn-in-nigerian-historical-scholarship/9F11012C518C78278B6A44249C1E3916#article

I welcome your feedback and engagement.

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Monday, September 15, 2025

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship

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