Heaviest is the Crown that History Wears

REVIEW OF OBARO IKIME’S CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF HISTORY?

Heaviest is the crown that history wears. Scholars may dispute this, but historians have no time to spare for an already-won debate evidenced by a universal historical principle, which is— changes over time— in the material and immaterial world. Technically, history is a vault that houses information about the stark nature of humanity, its exploits, politics and polity. Through fourteen chapters, Obaro Ikime leads one into the vault of Nigerian history. He uses ‘Prologue’ and ‘Introduction’ to open the portal to the vault by appetising the reader with what historians worldwide think about history. In ‘On History’, the Introduction, Ikime cited various meanings of history. The undying wisdom crafted in those meanings of history effortlessly forces reflexive nods from the reader. For instance, a particular meaning postulated by Robert V. Daniels reveals something unparalleled about history and directly rebukes the lackadaisical attitude towards historical studies by Nigeria’s state actors:

History is the memory of human group experience. If it is forgotten or ignored, we cease in that measure to be human. Without history, we do not know who we are or how we came to be, like victims of collective amnesia groping in the dark for our identity. The historical events have generated all the emotions, values, and ideals that make life meaningful and have given men something to live for, struggle over, and die for. Historical events have created all the essential human groupings—countries, religions, classes—and all the loyalties that attach to these.

History, though a study of the past, is alive in our everyday living as a society, individuals, and nation. So, while scholars may continue to argue if at all history deserves the heaviest of crowns, a quick Google search about the vicissitudes of humanity throughout all ages will brief one on patterns of varying continuities and discontinuities of the past in today’s world and which all qualifies history as even more deserving of a timeless throne whether scholars agree with this also or not.

Behind Ikime’s crusade for a better Nigeria through objective history education was his resilient affectation for the country. Despite being forced to retire in 1990 by the Ibrahim Babangida regime, Ikime still cared enough to write a book in defence of Nigerian history instead of a memoir before his demise two years ago. Although the book title –Can Anything Good Come Out of History? —seems to cast doubt on the essentiality of history. Ikime purposely positioned the title apathetic to launch an intellectual barrage against it. This he marshalled gallantly.

Ikime enthrones history in this book, yet he severely warns against puppeteering it for deceitful ends. Where European society at a point in time had worked with their erroneous historical perception that “Africa has no history” until ‘conceding’ in the last century, Ikime in this book implores us Africans not to make any attempt to behave as such regarding any group in Nigeria or any country next door and beyond; even a slight show of ethnic arrogance is impermissible. For one, he longs for Nigeria, where ethnic groups acknowledge one another under one genuine nationhood and where objective history is taught for social healing and the wellness of Nigerian life.

Now, you may liken Ikime’s enthroning of history—his profession—to what a marketer does for a product. After all, he is a historian, you would say. Look, Ikime is not a marketer. His profession, history, is a moral-driven heavy duty bestowed upon him as upon other historians to waken consciousness through enlightenment. One of Ikime’s concerns, in particular, addressed in the book, is the willful ignorance of many of Nigeria’s state actors and policymakers “who know little to nothing about the people for whom they make policy”. He emphasised the remedial role of history in fixing such aberration.

Another aberration in some quarters, disappointingly amongst some students, graduates and scholars etc., is how history, and by extension, Humanities and Social Sciences, has become a butt of jokes. They throw smears like ‘Of what use is history?’ Even amongst my erstwhile colleagues, some have asked, “Wetin’ I wan use history do after I graduate”, “Who history help?” “Na history we go chop?”. Shocking? Beyond all reasonable doubt! It is a horror to behold that some humans could mock the substance of their existence. Conceivably, they are incurably ignorant to the fact that Humanities and Social Sciences (wherein history as a discipline resides) remain the only faculties that speak to the “Who am I” and the “What are we” questions and assist us in locating our place in an unequal world and why and how we must change it against all odds. If Humanities and Social Sciences continue to be mocked or nudged to the bin, we are only pre-mourning ourselves. God forbid history is binned into obscurity. If so, we are full-speed into becoming a living necropolis or a marketable geo-wild circus.

About The Author

Gbọ́láhàn Adébíyì

author

I am a writer and historian who works as a part-time researcher at the National Archives Ibadan. I have research experience in ‘Nigeria-Biafra War’, ‘Lagos Colony’, ‘Maternal Mortality’, and ‘British Colonial Army in Nigeria’. My research interests involve War & Diplomacy, literature review, African foreign affairs, religion & politics, religion and non-religion, tradition and modernity. I have self-published works at adebiyigea on Substack. Some of my essays are published on The Republic.

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