One of the defining features of any group of people bound together by a culture is a history which describes the origins, the significant events and the personalities in the lifetime of the culture. This history is usually implicitly referenced when the members of the culture need to define their identity, since it is a rich source of information on precisely what distinguishes the people from everyone else. So you would expect that the recording and maintenance of this history would be a crucially important task of the culture. And indeed many cultures have done this since their beginning, whether by oral tradition or written records.

Now at the beginning of civilisation, cultures lived in isolated groups, not knowing and in most cases not needing to know what was going on elsewhere. So they were usually the only source of information about their history. However, the situation today is different - the overwhelming majority of people are aware of a world beyond their culture, and they consume most of their news about this world through global news sources such as the BBC, CNN, Reuters and AP. This means that each culture now has its position as the authentic source of information about its history challenged, and it is even more important that it takes the task of acting as the guardian of its history seriously. It is even more important if this culture happens to be a relatively minor player on the world's stage so that there is little incentive for global news organisations to report accurately or in sufficient depth on the history of that culture.

Of course, Nigeria is also affected by these changes in the way cultural history is consumed. Unfortunately, Nigerians seem to have a terrible attitude towards recording history. Firstly, we seem to have a disdain for preserving history in the form of written records, audio or video tapes. It is near impossible to find any radio or television broadcasts older than fifteen years, unless they are private recordings. There is a National Archives organisation charged with archiving old documents (the website is here). However, I have witnessed a good deal of what passes for document storage in Nigeria, where documents end up torn, mouldy or in otherwise bad shape. So I am not too hopeful about the fate of many documents in its care. Indeed, I would be unsurprised to learn that many important documents are routinely destroyed, given how many misdeeds our leaders need to hide.

Secondly, even when we do choose to preserve our history, we rarely ever situate events in their proper context. The people who record history seem to be creatures of the present who, when an important news story breaks, concentrate on the minutiae of who said what and how much was stolen from where. So they don't look at the bigger picture and paint a background of the story to show how relevant it is to broader developments in the country. They don't provide a context that explains the series of events led to the news story, who are the principal actors, what their motivations are, how the story might develop and what the longer-term implications this might be for Nigeria's political, economic or social future. This means that when the records they have written are revisited after a while, they are nearly useless to anyone who wasn't present at the time, because a lot of the context is missing. It is like looking so closely at a book that you can only see a few letters at a time.

Thirdly, a lot of the time, much of what is recorded is actually opinion rather than fact, and it is fairly obvious that this is the case. Opinion is fine - but you can only make sense of opinion if you have an understanding of what the opinion is being offered on. So when someone in the future reads the recorded history of Nigeria, he may know that the historian was happy or angry about something - but what about, he will have no idea.

I sometimes wonder why Nigerians have this attitude towards the recording of history. Is it because until recently, many Nigerian cultures recorded history orally so that the idea of committing things to a permanent medium is still alien? Is it that there are more important things to worry about than writing history, like where next day's meal is coming from? Or is that we are just bone-idle lazy?

Whatever the reason, there are dire consequences for us if we choose to record history in the way we do. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, various news media are the primary means of disseminating information in the world today. Typically, if they are to report on a news story in Nigeria, they may fly in a reporter who will get a quick summary of the goings-on without capturing the subtleties and complexities of the event. Indeed, because such news organisations serve an audience that does not consider Nigeria important enough to hear a detailed report on it, the news story from Nigeria is very likely to be so abbreviated that a distorted image emerges, and this can lead to wrong perception about Nigeria's image by the outside world.

Now this would not be a problem if there were online sources of information written by Nigerians that provided detailed news about Nigeria, along with the kind of context that I spoke about earlier on in this article. Then inquisitive people at least could readily refer to these sources in order to deepen their understanding of Nigeria, to cross-check the news from the global news organisations and to get an alternative view. In the absence of such sources, they are forced to rely on the information they get from the global news organisations, and the misperceptions about Nigeria continue to harden.

This is not to say that there aren't Nigerians who aren't aware of the need to construct a readily available comprehensive history of Nigeria and Nigerian events. I refer to people like Segun Dawodu and his excellent site at Dawodu.com, Nowa Omoigui  who has a site at Omoigui.com (what is it with Edo doctors and history, anyway?) and of course Bolaji Aluko's Nigerian Muse. I have even begun to contribute my little bit by dedicating myself to writing yearly reviews that have so far given a bird's eye view of the political developments for 2006 and 2007. However, we do need to shed our indifferent attitude towards preserving history - otherwise, it would not be a surprise if in several decades from now we end up with other people telling us about ourselves - and worse still, we would end up believing what they tell us because we have no comprehensive evidence to the contrary.

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle3041=encodeURIComponent(Telling Our...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 12.01.2008 03:48

dele26  Villager

# 2 => Firstly, we seem to have a disdain for preserving history in the form of written records, audio or video tapes. It is near impossible to find any radio or television broadcasts older than fifteen years, unless they are private recordings. At least Nigerian Television Authority have audio record of the independence ceremony where Mama Charley and the colonial masters sorry slave subjugators wined and dinned. Does anyone know if NTA like the BBC have the 1967-1970 civil wars? Posted by dele26| 12.01.2008 06:22

maxsiollun  Villager

# 3 Great article which I agree with. The reticence for recording our history is one of the reasons why I so frequently write about Nigerian historical events. Posted by maxsiollun| 12.01.2008 17:56

DeepThought  Villager

# 4 otherwise, it would not be a surprise if in several decades from now we end up with other people telling us about ourselves - and worse still, we would end up believing what they tell us because we have no comprehensive evidence to the contrary. Too late. Its already happened. Posted by DeepThought| 12.01.2008 19:27

truthsayer33  Villager

# 5 We seem incapable of documenting our present let alone our past.....please villagers,go to the website of our national assembly and see how information on the representatives is listed. Go to the Anambra State website and you will learn that the state has 2 governors and no judiciary. Go to the Presidency website and you will learn that our first lady is still very busy thinking about the role of first lady.What a country! Posted by truthsayer33| 13.01.2008 09:05

Shoko Loko Bangoshe  Villager

# 6 =Max Siollun>Great article which I agree with. The reticence for recording our history is one of the reasons why I so frequently write about Nigerian historical events. Hello Max, Sorry for missing you off the list - I didn't know you had a blog now. Please keep up with the good work of gathering our scattered record of events and building it up into an online comprehensive history. Posted by Shoko Loko Bangoshe| 13.01.2008 13:07

What?  Villager

# 7 It is sad that till today, most ethnic groups have not bothered to publish even pamphlets on their history, culture, or language for posterity. Of all the key figures still alive in the Nigerian experience it is surprisingly Obasanjo that has published two books with him as the all-knowing, all-seeing, visionary that we know him to be:lol:, what the other protagonists do not know is that 500 years from now it is his texts and others like his that will form a reference of the era. It is important everyone write their own history, down to every clan and family. When you are gone, what story will be told about you? Posted by What?| 13.01.2008 18:18

Toku.A  Villager

# 8 Shoko Thanks for a very timely article. Posted by Toku.A| 14.01.2008 11:38

Toku.A  Villager

# 9 =dele26;4294979262> At least Nigerian Television Authority have audio record of the independence ceremony where Mama Charley and the colonial masters sorry slave subjugators wined and dinned. Does anyone know if NTA like the BBC have the 1967-1970 civil wars? A lot of NTA tapes were deleted once. We might be unlucky or lucky to have it as one of the tapes deleted. I doubt if we would get to see the tapes you are requesting for. Posted by Toku.A| 14.01.2008 11:41

maxsiollun  Villager

# 10 No problem Shoko. My blog is new. However I am gradually amassing the historical content there, and will continue to do so. Collating these historical materials is a painstaking process but one which I am glad to carry out. Thanks for your compliment. Posted by maxsiollun| 14.01.2008 16:04

---

The conversation continues in our forum. Click here to read all comments

---