IIARD International Institute of Academic Research and Development

AFRICAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY (AJHA )

E-ISSN 2579-048X
P-ISSN 2695-1851
VOL. 9 NO. 1 2025
DOI: 10.56201/ajha.v9.no1.2025.pg14.29

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Bridging the Gap between Archival and Traditional Sources of History and the New Information Technology Revolution, 1960- 2020

Nkereuwem David Edemekong, PhD

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Abstract

History as a discipline is evidence based. As a discipline, not only is history totally evidence based, it strives for a considerable level of objectivity. It was Leopold Von Ronke the erudite historian and scholar that emphasized that Historical objectivity is a noble dream. To achieve this reasonable and considerable level of objectivity, tutors and teachers assigned with the responsibility of teaching History to the next generation emphasize the processing, analysis and interpretation of collected data. In History, data is generally categorized into two broad categories, Primary sources and Secondary sources. Primary sources include Archival sources, government gazettes, oral history and artefacts. Secondary sources include processed information from Books, Textbooks, Journal Articles, Newspapers, Student thesis and Dissertations and online sources. The new Information Technology Revolution makes information from Secondary sources readily available to the historian. For years, in historical circles in Nigeria and in Institutions of Higher learning across the Country, Primary sources presented in research undertaking were treated by panelists and examiners with regality and honour while secondary sources sincerely presented and analyzed were not given the same amount of evidential weight. This at times led to the sad experience of the desperate and frightened making brazen attempts to label Secondary sources as Primary Sources. There are also aspects of contemporary research, like research into the Gulf War or the tearing of the Iron Curtain, where relevant and significant materials are more likely to be found and extracted from Secondary Sources. It is sad to observe that some first-generation Professors have been alleged to have insisted when supervising topical issues like the tearing of the Iron Curtain or the Gulf War that students get all their materials from archives in Germany and Iraq. This Paper states emphatical

keywords:

Bridging the Gap, Archival Sources, Traditional Sources, History, New Information

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