USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: curricula about ancient Africa?: REPLY

To Douglas Thomas:

I have not fully followed this discussion, don't know how it started, and the trajectory it has taken. You may consider my intervention as an unusual intrusive quibble, based solely on the quotation below, which from my considered standpoint, should have been carefully nuanced and generously problematized. You write:

"Also those people like Molefi Keti Asante and the late Asa Hilliard who
are considered to be scholars and have held high positions in academia
have written about African history but are not trained historians. Thus
they present views that totally ignore the existing scholarship in the
field as Konadu stated earlier. Scholarship must engage the existing
work in the field." (Douglas Thomas)

You are right in so many ways, but does it mean that only those with PhDs in history must write African history? However defined the methodological rigor that informs the works of Molefi Asante and Asa Hilliard have forced "trained" historians to rethink African and African Diaspora histories. Kwame Arhin, perhaps the best Ghanaian "historian" of Ghana, in my view not Adu Boahen, trained as an anthropologist and a sociologist. Sadly, your cocky certainty that only trained historians should write African history, your reason for dismissing the works of Molefi Asante and Asa Hilliard, collapses on itself: you state that "For West African History, I use West Africa by Mendonsa which is an anthropology book but it works well for me."

Let us forget the narrow, if not your reductionist, take on "untrained" historians who fail to consider historiographies – "existing works in the field" - and focus on narratives of oral historians who make no references to "existing works in the field." Does it mean that African history is genuine and acceptable only when it is packaged in writing by "trained" historians who build on extant historiographies? I thought that the works of Jan Vansina, David Henige, etc. long ago fruitfully intervened on behalf of oral historians. As an example, some of the most comprehensive histories of pre/colonial Akans of Ghana are not found in archives and books. In fact, local "palace" officials and other knowledgeable constituencies have more detailed accounts and better perspectives on Akan histories than what passes as histories in books minted by "trained" historians who rely for the most part on jaundiced "Western" sources.

In sum, most historians of Africa cobble hegemonic narratives of organized chaos memorialized in the reports of colonial officials and Christian missionaries as the authentic African history. This is where and how the works of Molefi Asante and Asa Hilliard can help in assessing the weight of historical moments in Africa. I wonder why you did not mention Henry Louis Gates, the worst "untrained" historian of Africa and its Diasporas, who retails barber-shop ruminations as African history and the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and who is held in high esteem by the Western academy, the very watershed and vendors of Eurocentric-laden slabs of African history.

Absolutely, "untrained" historians lack the firm utilitarian grip that the historian's craft has on "trained" historians. Then again, African history has become a vulnerable field open to "specialists" of all kinds: I have seen media people on TV, who specialize in and chase after tornadoes and hurricanes in the USA, discuss African history as if Africa is a sum total of the indecipherable lines in their clenched fists that poise and push hegemonic epistemologies.

Kwabena Akurang-Parry
Shippensburg University & University of Cape Coast
kaparr@ship.edu


________________________________________
From: H-Net Discussion List on History and Study of West Africa [H-WEST-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU] on behalf of Becker Charles Centre d'etudes africaines [beckerleschar@ORANGE.SN]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 6:41 PM
To: H-WEST-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject: Re: curricula about ancient Africa?: REPLY

Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:11:37 -0600
X-Posted from H-NET Discussion List for African American Studies
<H-AFRO-AM@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
From: Abdul Alkalimat <mcworter@ILLINOIS.EDU>
_____________

REPLY

From: thomasd@gram.edu

Ms Woods:

My labeling of pseudo-scholars as two-bit hustlers and pimps should not
bother you unless you fit the bill. I am referring specifically to
those who have hijacked Afro-centric scholarship to serve as a conduit
for their nefarious revenue-generating schemes and/or to boost their
suffering egos. I don't know you ma'am so I'm not in the position to
say one way or the other about you.

In reference to your neat little history lesson, I think it is needful
to be mindful of the battle that was fought to bring serious
intellectual inquiry to Africa and the life of Africans and the African
Diaspora. However, that doesn't erase the fact that there are those who
make a total mockery of scholarly work and insult me, my work, and the
entire academy. They don't seek to teach or learn facts, but to
promulgate beliefs. This is repugnant and absolutely disgusting.

Also those people like Molefi Keti Asante and the late Asa Hilliard who
are considered to be scholars and have held high positions in academia
have written about African history but are not trained historians. Thus
they present views that totally ignore the existing scholarship in the
field as Konadu stated earlier. Scholarship must engage the existing
work in the field.

Now back to the original question in this thread, I use Africa in World
History by Gilbert and Reynolds in my African History survey courses.
For my East African History class I use Maxon's East Africa and
supplement it with readings from the Horn of Africa. For West African
History, I use West Africa by Mendonsa which is an anthropology book but
it works well for me. I also supplement all classes with movies and
Keim's Mistaking Africa.

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