Institute of Ethiopian Studies A Century of Ethiopian Historiography Author(s): Bahru Zewde Source: Journal of Ethiopian Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2, Special Issue Dedicated to the XIVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (November 2000), pp. 1-26 Published by: Institute of Ethiopian Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41966106 Accessed: 15-12-2015 09:25 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Institute of Ethiopian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Ethiopian Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:25:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JES,Vol. xxxm, No. 2 (November2000), 1-26 A Century of Ethiopian Historiography* BahruZewde Global Contours History,as therecounting of past eventsand deeds,is probablyas old as humanity itself.But it was the GreeksHerodotus and Thucydideswho introducedthe organizedand writtenhistorical narrative. In Asia, Chinesehistorians of the Han dynastydeveloped a similar traditionof writing organized and analytical history. And it was onlyin thenineteenth century thathistory established itself as an academicdiscipline, first in Europeanuniversities and researchcenters and subsequentlyin othercontinents, notably the United States. This "professionalization"of historyis commonlyassociated with the Germanhistorian Leopold von Ranke.The archives,as the repositoryof staterecords, emerged as the majorbasis of historicalresearch. The historicaljournal, even more than the monograph or thebook, became thetrademark of this new profession. Predominantly narrative in formand politicalin content, thisnew historiography has remainedthe paradigm of historical research and writing. Over the years,beginning in the nineteenthand pickingup pace and depthin the twentieth,this paradigm has cometo faceserious challenges.1 The firstmajor challenge came fromMarxist historiography and the Annales school pioneeredby the Frenchhistorians LucienFebvre and Marc Bloch. The newhistoriography highlighted two majorlimitations of theRankean tradition: its focus on politicalhistoiy and thenarrative (as opposedto analytical) modeof itsexposition. Instead, it was proposedthat historians should deal withthe totality of the past humanexperience, or at the veryleast broadenhistorical investigation to include social and economichistoiy. The preferredmode of expositionbecame analysis of structures ratherthan a narrativeof events. This new historiography,which evolved over time,with different elements of it emergingat differenttimes, has had the effectof deepeninghistorical research by directing historiansto suchnew avenues as local histoiy,gender history, environmental history, and the histoiyof ideas,to nameonly some of them.At thesame time, it has broughtabout a shiftin perspective,of lookingat thehistorical experience from below rather than from above, from thepoint of view ofthe subject rather than the sovereign, the soldier rather than the general. It has also promptedhistorians into new sources, such as oralsources, as opposedto thearchival documentsthat had assumedalmost canonical importance in Rankeanhistoriography. Finally, this new approachhas meanthistorians linking up withother disciplines, such as social anthropology,economics, sociology and psychology. Much moreunsettling has been themore recent critique of the Rankeanparadigm, what has come to be knownas the "postmodernist"challenge. This has questionedthe fundamentalsof modernhistoriography, its claimto scientificstatus.2 This scepticismcould be said to haveemanated from the global tribulations of the first half of the twentieth century thatshattered the faith in thelinear progression of mankind, from low to highand frombad to good. Consideringhistoiy, as was indeedthe case in formertimes, as a formof literature,it cast doubton the possibilityof attaininghistorical truth. Nor was this spiritof scepticism unprecedented.It could be saidto havehad itsantecedents in thenihilism of Nietzsche and the This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:25:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2 Bahru Zewde.^4Century of Ethiopian Historiography existentialismof Jean-PaulSartre, both of whom had questionedin differentways the humanisticand rationalisticassumptions of the Enlightenment. The post-modernistcritique of standardhistoriography might have had, as Giggers asserts,the effectof blurringthe distinctionbetween history and fiction,between "honest scholarshipand propaganda".3Criticism has also been directedagainst the post-modernists thatthey have been moreadept at writingabout historythan writing it. On thepositive side, however,it has had a salutaiyeffect in pointingboth the scientificlimits of historical investigationand theliterary potentials of historicalnarrative. The focusand scope of history has accordinglychanged in recentyears, from politics to culture("in the broad sense of everydaylife"4) and fromwhat is knownas metahistory(the grandhistorical narrative, or even philosophyof history)to microhistory(the lives of commonersin localized settings). Moreover,in as muchas the totalhistorical truth can not be known,historians, as Burke suggests,5could profitablyemploy some literarytechniques to fill the gap betweentheir researchfindings and whatcould have actually happened. After all, thebest literary historians had alwayscombined factual investigation and creativeimagination. ContinentalSetting Africanhistoriography, denoting the history of Africansrather than of Europeansin Africa(as hadbeen thecase in thecolonial period), has had a muchshorter life span than the global trendsdiscussed above. It coincidedwith the decolonization process in the 1950s and 1960s.Two institutionspioneered this new process whereby Africans were able to appropriate theirhistory. They were the School of Africanand OrientalStudies (SOAS) in Londonand theDepartment of History at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison.The twoleading spirits of thisnew history, Roland Oliver at SOAS and JanVansina at Madison,have recently published reminiscencesof theirstruggle to establishAfrican history in Britishand Americanacademic institutions.6The twocenter s thatthey led playeda pivotalrole in thetraining of theAfrican and Africanisthistorians who were to deepen and broaden Africanhistoriography in subsequentdecades. Of thetwo, SOAS couldbe said to havehad theedge not only in training Africanhistorians but also in initiatingand sustainingthe Journalof AfricanHistory , a publicationthat could be said to have set the standardsfor historicalwriting on Africa.7 Centralto whatin effectbecame a historiographierevolution was the developmentof the methodologyfor the employmentof oral sourcesto reconstructthe historyof non-literate societies,a methodologythat has been superblysynthesized in theworks of Jan Vansina.8 Coupledwith the need of the newlyindependent African states to appropriateand redefinetheir past, the developments outlined above fostered the growth of centersof African historicalstudies in the continentitself. Two such centersattained particular fame and significancein sub-SaharanAfrica (excluding South Africa) - whatcame to be knownas the Ibadanand Dar-es-Salaamschools of historiography,based at theUniversities of Ibadanand Dar-es-Salaam,respectively. The leadingfigures in theformer were the Nigerian historians K.O. Dike and JacobAde Ajayi,while amongthe luminariesof the latterwere the British historianTerence Ranger (followed by his compatriotsJohn Iliffe and JohnLonsdale) and the late WestIndian historian Walter Rodney. Ibadan became not onlythe training ground for a numberof historianswho subsequentlyspread out to otherNigerian universities like Lagos, Ife and Zaria, but also chartedwhat could be describedas the Nigeriannationalist historiography.An allied developmentwas thefounding of theHistorical Society of Nigeria and twomedia for the dissemination of historicalresearch - theIbadan History series and the This content downloaded from 213.55.104.103 on Tue, 15 Dec 2015 09:25:31 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JES, Vol. xxxni, No. 2 (November2000) 3 Journalof the Historical Society of Nigeria. Ibadan established the historiographie norm until it came to be challengedby whathad startedas its offshoot,the AhmaduBello University based in Zaria. The latternot only came to emphasizethe Islamic traditionof Northern Nigeriabut also introduceda Marxist perspective into the study of Nigerian history.9 The Marxistor class view of historybecame the trademarkof the Dar es Salaam school. The socialistexperiment of the Nyerereera - encapsulatedin Ujamaa- had its academiccounterpart on The Hill,as themain campus of the University of Dar-es-Salaam was known.The Hill evolvedas a sortof grandrendez-vous of AfricanMarxists.10 Two of the membersof thatschool, Arnold Temu and BonaventureSwai, in facthelped to carrythe Marxisttorch to Zaria in Nigeria,thus helping to bringabout the differentiationdescribed above. The celebratedspecimen of these endeavourswas WalterRodney's How