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North African Historiography and the Westerner: The Maghrib as Seen by David Gordon
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Extract
For the people of the Third World, nationhood in the twentieth century frequently demands the solution of a dual complexity: on the one hand, a search for an identity long suppressed by colonialism; and on the other hand, an effort to come to terms with the problems engendered by often violent entry into modernity. The challenge presented by this quest for self-identity and self-determination is at once paradoxical and parallel. Under foreign domination the colonized is denied his past, his real history; in addition he is forbidden any role in the making of his future. No wonder then that modern revolutionary movements stress the necessity for recovering the colonized's indigenous background — his roots — as a necessary corollary to independence and the eradication of colonialism.
In a sense the student of history also shares in the problem. Particularly is this true of students in North African history for in the pursuit of knowledge about the Maghrib's past and present, where does one turn historiographically? For purposes of organization only, three prospective “schools” of historical analysis are considered here: colonialist, nationalist, and Western. In suggesting these three “schools,” I make no attempt to be inclusive; many other variations are possible. The model used here is presented simply as a guide to complement the discussion which follows.
The aspiring historian may first seek truth in history as written by the colonialist. In most instances, however, this will prove inadequate because the colonizer usually relegates the pre-colonial past to obscurity; history under dynamic colonialism or protectionism is inevitably seen as forever enlightened whereas independence is chaotic and despotic, if the colonizer bothers to write about the reborn nation at all.
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References
1. Gordon, David C., The Passing of French Algeria (London, 1966), p. 18Google Scholar; idem, Self-Determination and History in the Third World (Princeton, 1971), pp. 160-64.
2. Gordon, , The Passing of French Algeria, pp. 186, 189.Google Scholar For a more thorough discussion of nationalist historians, see Gordon's, analysis in Self-Determination and History, especially pp. 133–76Google Scholarpassim.
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7. Ibid., Chapters V to VII.
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13. Gordon, , Women of Algeria: An Essay on Change (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), pp. 6–18Google Scholar; included in Gordon's analysis is an interesting discussion of the ideas of Germaine Tillion. See also Bourdieu, Pierre, The Algerians (Boston, 1962).Google Scholar
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