IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL POLICY (JHSP )

E-ISSN 2545-5729
P-ISSN 2695 2416
VOL. 10 NO. 6 2024
DOI: 10.56201/jhsp.v10.no6.2024.pg1.14

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Contributions of Interdisciplinary Approach to the Development of History and Historiography in Nigeria

Enato, Lucky Success Ehimeme, PhD Abenabe, Green Kevwe Ekpotuatin Charles Ariye, PhD

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Abstract

In time past, Nigerian and African societies were regarded as unrewarding gyrations of barbarous and backward tribes in picturesque but irrelevant part of the globe. Pertinent to know that European scholars and writers like Frederick Hegel, A.P. Newton, Hugh Trevor Roper, Margery Perham, Herbert Spencer among others regarded Africa as having no history and that it is not possible to write a history of Africa. To these Eurocentric and prejudiced scholars, the only history of Africa worthy of mention and serious study was the history of alien activities in Africa. As A.P. Newton and other Eurocentric colleagues of his had asserted, ‘History only begins when man take to writing, concerning almost entirely with written records and can only make use of material remains with which the archaeologists and anthropologists are concerned’. Thus, one of the causes of the disinterest in African history particularly Nigeria History emanates from its historiography and accessing the sources of information concerning the pre-literate society and past events of Nigeria and her other African societies. Against this background, the work examines and set to evaluate the contributions of interdisciplinary approach to the study of Nigerian history and historiography. The paper will clearly depict if the interdisciplinary approach can help give satisfactory solutions to historical problems. Again, it examines how interdisciplinary approach can aid Nigerian historiography to achieve reliability and make its conclusion tenable and acceptable to scholars and laymen.

keywords:

Historiography, Interdisciplinary Approach, Contributions, Improvement

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