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2. For details, see Swai, B., “The State of African History: Social Responsibility of the Coming Generation of African Historians,” Paper Presented at the 34th Annual Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria Held at the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, 15-18 May 1989, p.1Google Scholar; also see Ayandele, E.A., “The Task Before Nigerian Historians Today,” JHSN, 9/4 (1979), 3–4.Google Scholar

3. The themes of some of the recent annual Congresses of the H.S-N. include, “History and Nigeria's Third Republic” (1989); “History, Science, and Technology” (1990); and “History and Development” (1991).

4. Ikime, O., “The Role of the Historian in Nation-Building: The Nigerian Case,” Lecture Delivered Under the Auspices of the Students Historical Society of Nigeria (S.H.S.N.), Bendel (now Edo) State University, Ekpoma Branch, 26 May 1987.Google Scholar

5. In January 1994 history students at the University of Benin demonstrated a similar concern in a memorandum entitled “The Prospects of History in a Changing World,” in which they lamented the state of irrelevance of the discipline and called for the introduction of combined honours degrees (that is, combining History with courses like Diplomacy or Economics) as a way of enhancing their marketability.

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9. Some works are Afigbo, A. E., The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in South Eastern Nigeria, 1891-1929 (London, 1972)Google Scholar; Atanda, J. A., The New Oyo Empire (London, 1973)Google Scholar; and Igbafe, P.A., Benin Under British Administration (London, 1979).Google Scholar

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12 For details see Afigbo, A. E., The Poverty of African Historiography (Lagos, 1977), 2–12Google Scholar. It should be noted, however, that as early as 1961, Ade Ajayi had recognized these defects of Nigerian historiography and called for a “radical reform;” see Lovejoy, P.E., “The Ibadan School of Historiography and its Critics,”Google Scholar in Falola, Toyin, ed., African Historiography: Essays in Honour of Jacob Ade Ajayi (Longman, 1993), 198.Google Scholar

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14. Ikime, O., Through Changing Scenes: Nigerian History Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ibadan, 1979), 16–17.Google Scholar For more on the unsociological character of this kind of history see Peel, J. D. Y., Ijesas and Nigerians: the Incorporation of a Yoruba Kingdom, 1890s-1970 (Cambridge, 1983), 11–15.Google Scholar

15. Kapteijns, , “African Historiography,” 122–23.Google Scholar In fact it would appear as if this apparent misreading of the situation in many African countries caused some Western scholars to misunderstand the magnitude of the crisis of historical scholarship in most parts of Africa. See for instance, Hamerow, T. S., Reflections on History and Historians (Madison, 1987), 6.Google Scholar

16. See, for example, Ikime, Through Changing Scenes; Igbafe, P. A., “A Bridge Across Time: The Benin Factor in Nigerian History,” 23rd Inaugural Lecture, University of Benin, Benin City, 1987Google Scholar; G. O. Olusanya, “Attempts at Nation-Building in Nigeria”; and Akinjogbin, I. A., “History and Nation-Building,” Inaugural Lecture, University of Ife, Ile-Ife, 22 November 1977.Google Scholar

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18. Of course the degree to which these scholars emphasize the defects in historical scholarship varies according to their perceptions of the issue.

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24. Ibid. See as well J. F. Ade Ajayi, “Problems of Writing Contemporary African History,” Paper Presented at the Joint Seminar: Staff and Postgraduates, Department of History, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, 27 November, 1980.

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32. Some of these works are Usman, Y. B., For the Liberation of Nigeria (London, 1979), 34, 224Google Scholar; Mahadi, A., “The State and the Economy: The Sarauta System and its Role in Shaping the Society and Economy of Kano with Particular Reference to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries” (Ph.D., Ahmadu Bello University, 1982)Google Scholar; Mangvwat, M. Y., “A History of Class Formation in the Plateau Province 1902-1960: The Genesis of a Ruling Class” (PhD., Ahmadu Bello University, 1984)Google Scholar; and Pongri, J. H., “Political Development in Northern Adamawa 1809-1960: A Study in the Historical Development of Inter-Group Relations” (PhD., Ahmadu Bello University, 1987).Google Scholar A work that did attempt to carry out such a critique is Thomas-Emeagwali, Gloria, “Model Building, Explanation, and History: The Marxian Pre-Capitalist Model and Pre-Colonial Socio-Economic Formations in Igboland, Eastern Nigeria” (PhD., Ahmadu Bello University, 1984).Google Scholar

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