True African History

I have spent much of my adult life reading other people's accounts of who we are and how we got here. There is something very annoying about reading an account of colonialism in which the people doing the colonising are explaining their "civilising mission". Apparently we were supposed to be grateful.

I have much the same problem with the IMF and "structural adjustment". Our own elites talk about development while moving their loot offshore. I think a lot of the language we use to talk about Africa makes it easier for the people with power to keep doing what they are doing.

If you have read my post about the dragon with at least three heads, you will know that I don't think our problems end with our own leaders. The global system has a part to play too. But the people who benefit from it also get to explain to us how it works, and why it is good for us.

An old letter or an official telegram can tell you quite a lot. I want to put that sort of material alongside essays about African history, with footnotes so you can read the sources for yourself. That is the idea behind the site I have been working on, True African History.

It is a work in progress. I do plenty of ranting on this blog already, and I want to give the history and its sources more room on their own site.

If you read something there that you think is wrong, tell me. Challenge the sources too. Calling the site True African History would be a little silly if I was unwilling to take corrections. And if you have material that might be useful - an old family diary, for example, or a dissertation that nobody seems to have read - I would like to hear about it.

Have a look at TrueAfricanHistory.com, and share anything you think is worth reading.