I have always found it funny how history is told like a perfect story, as if everything written down is exactly how it happened, but when you start to really think about it, you realize that most times, history is just the version told by the people who won or had the power to write it, the rest of the story , the side of the people who didn’t get to speak usually disappears.
One particular thing that always gets to me is the story of Mungo Park, i remember being in school and learning that Mungo Park discovered River Niger, you know the way it was written in our textbooks, you would think the river didn’t even exist before he showed up with a map and a boat, i can still remember how our teacher would say it with pride, and we all had to memorize it for exams, It sounded like such a great achievement , Mungo Park discovered River Niger.
But the older I got, the more I started to question that line, okay..... like seriously, how can you discover a river that people had been fishing from, bathing in, and living beside for generations before you ever came? So did the river just appear because he saw it? that part never made sense to me, It is actually funny when you think about it, because we have been told the same story for so long that many people don’t even stop to question it anymore.
The truth is, history is filled with stories like that , where the people who came later claimed to discover or civilize things that already existed, It is not just in Nigeria, even in other parts of the world, people still hold on to false stories just because that’s how it was written down first, Like how people say Christopher Columbus discovered America, as if there weren’t people living there already, see It is the same pattern everywhere , the victors write the story, and the rest of us just read and repeat it.
Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if those who were actually there could tell their side of the story, Maybe we would understand things differently, Maybe we would see that what we were taught as discovery was actually invasion or exploitation ,but unfortunately, those voices were silenced, and what we were left with is just one-sided truth dressed up as history.
I think what makes it worse is that once something gets printed into textbooks, it becomes so hard to correct , even teachers who know the truth still teach the old version because that is what the syllabus says ,and students who grow up reading it don’t question it , they just pass it on, It is like a never ending circle of misinformation.
But honestly, I think it is time people start questioning the things we were taught , see it is not because everything is wrong, but because some parts of history were told to make certain people look like heroes, It does not mean we have to hate history, but we should at least be open minded enough to look deeper.
So when people say Mungo Park discovered River Niger, I just smile, deep down, I know our ancestors had already been living by that river long before he ever showed up, Maybe one day, history will tell it the right way , not from the point of view of who had the pen, but from the people who were actually there.
But until then, I will just keep reminding myself that not every story written down is the full truth.
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History is fun to read indeed !INDEED 😄
I don’t trust History taught in Nigeria. In fact, if I want to know about the past, I have to dig deep myself. Many stories now are misconstrued to tell only one narrative.
Exactly o.
If I need good knowledge on stuff like this, I dig deep ,like really deep
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Thank you