Editing Historiography (section)

==== Africa ====
{{Main|African historiography}}
Since most African societies [[Oral tradition|recorded their history orally]], written records largely focussed on the actions of outsiders. Historiography in the colonial period was undertaken by European academics and historians from a European perspective, under the pretence of [[Western superiority]] supported by [[scientific racism]]. Oral sources were deprecated and dismissed by unfamiliar historians, giving them the impression Africa had history nor desire to create it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=Frederick |date=2000 |title=Africa's Pasts and Africa's Historians |journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=298–336 |doi=10.2307/486417 |jstor=486417}}</ref>

[[African historiography]] became organised at the academic level in the mid 20th century.<ref>Manning, 2013, p. 321.</ref> [[Kenneth Dike]], among others, pioneered a new methodology of reconstructing African history using the oral traditions, alongside evidence from European-style histories and other [[Auxiliary sciences of history|historical sciences]].<ref name="Studien-2018">{{Cite web |last=Studien |first=Forum Transregionale |date=2018-07-31 |title=African Historiography and the Challenges of European Periodization: A Historical Comment |url=https://trafo.hypotheses.org/11518 |access-date=2024-10-12 |website=TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research |doi=10.58079/usq7 |language=de-DE}}</ref><ref name="Horakova-2016">{{Cite book |last1=Horáková |first1=Hana |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iqKLDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22general+history+of+africa%22+oral+sources+tradition&pg=PA207 |title=Knowledge Production in and on Africa |last2=Werkman |first2=Katerina |date=2016 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-643-90798-1 |language=en |chapter=African historians and the production of historical knowledge in Africa: Some reflections}}</ref>{{Rp|page=212}} This movement towards utilising oral sources in a multi-disciplinary approach culminated in [[UNESCO]] commissioning the ''[[General History of Africa]]'', edited by specialists drawn from across the African continent, and publishing from 1981 to 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Studien |first=Forum Transregionale |date=2018-07-31 |title=African Historiography and the Challenges of European Periodization: A Historical Comment |url=https://trafo.hypotheses.org/11518 |access-date=2024-10-12 |website=TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research |doi=10.58079/usq7 |language=de-DE}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Falola |first1=Toyin |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQJjYC74tu8C&dq=%22general+history+of+africa%22+oral+sources+tradition&pg=PR11 |title=Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed |last2=Jennings |first2=Christian |date=2003 |publisher=University Rochester Press |isbn=978-1-58046-134-4 |language=en |chapter=Introduction}}</ref>  [[:Category:Historians of Africa|Contemporary historians]] are still tasked with building the institutional frameworks incorporating African [[Epistemology|epistemologies]] and representing an African perspective.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Falola |first=Toyin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9dgBEQAAQBAJ |title=Decolonizing African History |date=2024-04-05 |publisher=African Books Collective |isbn=978-3-906927-51-0 |language=en}}</ref>