Obaba Museum

The idea of history and the past are two different things – the past has happened and cannot be changed, however, history is constantly redefined. Because it is an intellectual discipline it undergoes constant revisions because every generation rewrites history focusing on different interests relevant to the current trends (modern concerns).

E.H Carr defines it as a dialogue between the historian and his facts, he argues that history is about facts and collecting as many as possible. In actual sense, the facts only speak when the historian calls on them hence the process of making history is heavily reliant on how the historian interprets his facts. Facts are collected, interpreted and written into a narrative. One major problem about history is the shortage or unavailability of facts and evidence needed to conclusively form a theory or narrative, however, this does not mean that, that thing did not happen at all.

History is a community of arguments where a historian is held accountable by other historians. Hence you do not have ‘the definite history of something or someone’, rather you use the indefinite article ‘a’ to indicate you are simply adding your voice to an argument. The historian is engaged in a continuous process of moulding his facts to his interpretation and his interpretation to his facts. It is a continuous process, some facts are collected, a tentative interpretation is made, more facts are collected, the interpretation is revised.

The facts of the past are only accessible through the present; the very words which the historian uses (words like democracy, empire, war, revolution) have current connotations from which he can not separate them. In actual sense, the beliefs and ideas of people concerning basic societal issues may differ from one generation to another. The past is logical to us only through the perspective of the present and we can only understand the present if we have knowledge of the past.

The knowledge of history is crucial to the growth of any society as it helps to track the progress and advancement of societies over time, it serves as a yardstick for judging progress. It is therefore necessary to understand it as the lack of it leads to the death of a society – just like a human being who has his memory erased.