Historicism and the Suppression of African Perspectives
Historicism, which suggests that historical events take their unique shapes depending on context and period, has significantly prevented the African narrative and truth from getting into Western historical narration (Hunfeld, 2022, p. 115). However, the ancient African approach to ancient history that has been used has aided in the people of African culture being ignorant of their history, social devices, sighting of racism, and a warped history of their cultures and societies (Abudu, 2023, p. 250).
Examining the Roots of Historicism’s Impact
To comprehend the power of Historicism as an intellectual paradigm, we must plunge into the historical and social context that precipitated its development (Snooks, 2020, p 240). The slave trade and the colonizing force merely served to encapsulate the prevalent imagery of Africa as the West transmitted it. The historians during this time who supported the concept of Historicism depicted the Africans as a source of fright making, making exploitation and oppression easy. In many instances, they became the tool to instigate and fuel stereotypes and prejudices. Thus, today, they are simply a mirror reflecting all the racist factions (Skinner-Dorkenoo et al., p. 401).
Challenging Colonial Knowledge Processes
Historicism is an essential factor that explains the underrepresentation of African experiences and African knowledge in Western institutions that consist of universities and schools (Dei, 2023, p. 90). The curriculum of spaces like these has been chiefly influenced by an approach with a Eurocentric focus, leaving gaps in the education and analysis of historical events that need to incorporate diverse narratives and perspectives. Due to being exposed to only a select number of the experiences and stories of African people, there has been a necessity to fill in such pieces of the jigsaw that confirm bias and dispel other notions (Carlson, 2020, p. 116).
Decolonizing Education and Empowering Marginalized Voices
In this way, the knowledge gap could be filled,e past stereotypes of Historicism could be eliminated, and the decolonization of education is highly warranted, implying a thorough analysis of the colonial mindset behind the existing national education systems and integrating voices and cutting the marginalized. Through teaching anti-racist pedagogy and foregrounding the African perspective as the central arbiter of history, a more inclusive and accurate understanding of history can be sustained, dismantling the stereotypes and assumptions that have been perpetuated as a result of Historicism (Mullen, 2021, p. 22).
Overcoming Barriers and Embracing New Perspectives
The actual trek towards liberating knowledge and abolishing the side effects of Historicism is not short of struggles. Institutional aspects, including limited money for differentiated history instruction and struggle with variation, overshadow the effectiveness of what is done. Besides the given barriers that originate from structural racism and colonization, societal inequalities like existing stereotypes and societal norms are also persisting. Nevertheless, various transformations in ideas, standing orders, and a more human-centred atmosphere in educating places and beyond them can be necessary to make our heritage and experiences reflect the actual realities of Africa (Volberda et al., 2021).
Because of Historicism, awareness of the cavity in African heritage was formed and stimulated ideas, opinions, racial discrimination and perceptions, which became stereotypes, which led to misinterpretation and other misunderstanding of African civilizations. Through analyzing or seeing the colonial origins of our educational systems, if we use the anti-racist pedagogy and give more space to marginalized people, we can help the decolonization of knowledge and make a more truthful and inclusive representation of African history and stories.
References
Abudu, K.U., 2023. Exploring Ignorance and Injustice in African Epistemology. In Handbook of African Philosophy (pp. 245-264). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-25149-8_14.pdf
Carlson, E., 2020. Anti-colonial methodologies and practices for settler colonial studies. In Pathways of Settler Decolonization (pp. 102-122). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429423673-7/anti-colonial-methodologies-practices-settler-colonial-studies-elizabeth-carlson
Dei, G.S., 2023. Indigenous anti-colonial knowledge as ‘heritage knowledge ‘ for promoting Black/African education in diasporic contexts. In Educational Research Practice in Southern Contexts (pp. 78-95). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003355397-6/indigenous-anti-colonial-knowledge-heritage-knowledge-promoting-black-african-education-diasporic-contexts-george-sefa-dei
Hunfeld, K., 2022. The coloniality of time in the global justice debate: de-centring Western linear temporality. Journal of Global Ethics, 18(1), pp.100-117. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17449626.2022.2052151
Mullen, C.A., 2021. Pedagogies for decolonizing education in theory and practice. Handbook of social justice interventions in education, pp.11-37.https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-35858-7_91.pdf
Skinner-Dorkenoo, A.L., George, M., Wages III, J.E., Sánchez, S. and Perry, S.P., 2023. A systemic approach to the psychology of racial bias within individuals and society. Nature Reviews Psychology, 2(7), pp.392-406. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-023-00190-z
Snooks, G.D., 2020. Is singularity a scientific concept or the construct of metaphysical Historicism? Implications for Big History. The 21st Century Singularity and Global Futures: A Big History Perspective, pp.225-263. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-33730-8_12
Volberda, H.W., Khanagha, S., Baden-Fuller, C., Mihalache, O.R. and Birkinshaw, J., 2021. Strategizing in a digital world: Overcoming cognitive barriers, reconfiguring routines and introducing new organizational forms. Long Range Planning, 54(5), p.102110. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630121000418
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