[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.27.3″ custom_padding=”||0px|||” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.10″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.27.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_blurb url_new_window=”on” image=”https:\/\/usablehistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Audra-Dipte\u0301e-Photo-scaled.jpg” image_icon_width=”78px” content_max_width=”1100px” _builder_version=”4.13.0″ header_font=”Cardo|700|||||||” header_font_size=”17px” body_font=”||||||||” body_font_size=”14px” body_line_height=”1em” link_option_url_new_window=”on” hover_enabled=”0″ border_radii_image=”on|70px|70px|70px|70px” box_shadow_style_image=”preset2″ image_max_width=”48px” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″ title_text=”Audra Dipte\u0301e Photo”][\/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ text_font_size=”20px” text_orientation=”justify” max_width=”600px” module_alignment=”center” text_text_align=”justify” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
In the early 1950s, the United States was in the midst of heated debate about the Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation in the South. No doubt inspired by the ongoing national debate, the historian C. Vann Woodward began researching the history of segregation. As he saw it, the contemporary debate on segregation was grounded in \u2018faulty or inadequate historical information\u2019 and sociological theories \u2018based upon erroneous history.\u2019 As an American citizen, he felt compelled to use his expertise as a historian to bring insights to the events that were unfolding around him; he wanted to inform debates that were taking place about very real issues that affected the daily lives of his fellow citizens; he hoped to disrupt the mythologized narratives that had become part of the popular discourse. In other words, his historical questions were shaped by national events that were part of his lived reality.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, for much of the Global South, the trends in historical production are often driven by forces that are far removed from the lived realities of people living in the developing world. The consequence of this circumstance is something I have been contemplating for some time.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][dssb_sharing_buttons icon_placement=”icon” columns=”3″ icon_color=”#FFFFFF” icon_bg=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” use_sharing_title=”on” sharing_title=”Share this article!” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” sharing_title_font=”|700|||||||” sharing_title_text_align=”center” width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” min_height=”100px” height=”100px” global_colors_info=”{}”][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”linkedin” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”twitter” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][\/dssb_sharing_buttons][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/usablehistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/magazine-18.png” _builder_version=”3.27.3″ custom_margin=”49px||50px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ text_font=”Cardo||||||||” text_text_color=”#2a2a2a” text_font_size=”42px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”||69px|||” text_font_size_tablet=”36px” text_font_size_phone=”24px” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Unfortunately, for much of the Global South, the trends in historical production are often driven by forces that are far removed from the lived realities of people living in the developing world.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”20px” text_orientation=”justify” max_width=”600px” module_alignment=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In an insightful piece<\/a> written in the New York Times<\/em>, Adaobi T. Nwaubani<\/a> makes it clear that novelists in Africa face similar challenges. In words of congratulations for the publication of her book with a US-based press, Nwaubani\u2019s friend pointed out that she had learnt \u2018what the white people wanted to read and given it to them.\u2019 Similarly, the history of the Global South tends to be driven by the intellectual curiosities of historians based in North America and Europe. These are individuals whose lived realities are far removed from the places they are studying. To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with \u2018outsiders\u2019 offering historical interpretations about societies in which they do not live. In fact, there is no question that they may have valuable insights to share. There is something very wrong, however, when Western intellectual curiosities are privileged and dominate the trends in history writing for other parts of the world.\u00a0 In the words of Amina Mama, it reflects \u2018the continuation of the oppressive and exploitative legacies of a colonial patriarchal order that excludes \u2026 large swathes of the world\u2019s intellectuals \u2026\u2019 In the same way that Vann Woodward\u2019s historical pursuit about segregation was inspired by contemporary events in the United States, historians in India and Ghana, for example, might also be driven to write histories that are inspired by their lived realities. They too might hope to disrupt popular mythologies that inform contemporary discussions and to write histories that are actually meaningful to the societies in which they live. [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/usablehistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/sebastian-navarro-JUB37YQuPls-unsplash-scaled.jpg” alt=”Protests for dignity and a better quality of life, Chile, 2019.” title_text=”Protests for dignity and a better quality of life, Chile, 2019.” _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”20px” text_orientation=”justify” max_width=”600px” module_alignment=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Protests for dignity and a better quality of life, Chile, 2019.\u00a0 Photo by reza shayestehpour<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Their ground level perspective \u2013 not to mention the fact that they are invested in these societies by virtue of living in them \u2013 necessarily means that they are better positioned to put their finger on the pulse of these societies. For these historians, the Global South is much more than an intellectual playground and a place to pursue history for the sake of history.\u00a0 It is more than a place to study at a distance and to test theories for the sake of testing theories. It is also much more than an opportunity to write books that will guarantee tenure, promotion, and pay raises.<\/span><\/p>\n And for those academics who are inclined to resurrect the tiresome argument that historians have a responsibility to pursue their research in a disinterested fashion, my response is quite simply this: history is always political. If you are in doubt of this, then ask yourself why one of the first things a dictator does when he gets into power is to ensure that history textbooks are rewritten to serve the desired agenda. And if my words have no currency with you, then please read Howard Zinn\u2019s The Politics of History<\/em> (1970). \u00a0He more or less damned historians who advocated that the profession had a responsibility to be \u2018disinterested, neutral, scientific, and objective.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Historians have an obligation, of course, to stay faithful to the methods of the discipline, and to maintain academic integrity \u2013 but their interpretations are political whether they choose to admit it or not. Scholars in the Global South who choose to study the postcolonial world they inherited, do not have the luxury of denying the politics inherent in historical production.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/usablehistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/reza-shayestehpour-H3AfgZyjNaI-unsplash-scaled.jpg” title_text=”reza-shayestehpour-H3AfgZyjNaI-unsplash” _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.13.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”20px” text_orientation=”justify” max_width=”600px” module_alignment=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Photo by Sebasti\u00e1n Navarro<\/a> on Unsplash.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Of course, one could point out that there is an increasing number of scholars from the Global South who have found employment in North America and Europe. As one of them, I can attest to the conflicted space in which many of us live. <\/span><\/p>\n On the one hand, there is a desire to write books that engage with historiographies produced in the Global South; there is also the temptation to publish with presses that take distribution in the Global South seriously and sell books at prices that might be affordable to scholars outside of North America and Europe. <\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, expat-scholars are all familiar with, and vulnerable to, the Western snobberies that assume scholarship published in presses in the Global South are necessarily sub-standard. The assumption being, of course, that if one could publish with Cambridge University press or an equivalent press, then one would.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Little \u2013 if any \u2013 priority is given to\u00a0producing work that is accessible to scholars in the Global South and engages with discourses produced in the very societies being studied.\u00a0 In fact, few Western academics truly understand why they are complicit, as Amina Mama\u2019s points out, in the \u2018failure to decolonize intellectual life.\u2019 I would love to get your thoughts on this.\u00a0 Feel free to leave a comment on to email me directly.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.10″ min_height=”98px” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.27.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/usablehistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/1_Signature_-HR-BLACK.png” align=”right” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” width=”74%” min_height=”100px” height=”264px” max_height=”100px” custom_padding=”1px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][dssb_sharing_buttons icon_placement=”icon” columns=”3″ icon_color=”#FFFFFF” icon_bg=”RGBA(0,0,0,0)” use_sharing_title=”on” sharing_title=”Share this article!” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” sharing_title_font=”|700|||||||” sharing_title_text_align=”center” width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” min_height=”100px” height=”100px” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”linkedin” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][dssb_sharing_button social_network=”twitter” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_button][\/dssb_sharing_buttons][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Allura||||||||” header_2_text_color=”#0C71C3″ header_2_font_size=”45px” custom_margin=”0px|0px|0px|0px|false|false” custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][dssb_sharing_buttons _builder_version=”4.10.8″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/dssb_sharing_buttons][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”4.10.6″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.10.6″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/usablehistory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/4__UHHU_Subscribe_Audra-in-Green-Jacket-Sitting-on-Floor-Writing-with-Fountain-Pen-next-to-Aime-Cesaire_June-2021_-scaled.jpg” alt=”Audra A. Dipt\u00e9e.” title_text=”Audra A. Dipt\u00e9e” _builder_version=”4.10.6″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.10.6″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.10.6″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#000000″ text_orientation=”left” width=”70%” module_alignment=”center” min_height=”100px” custom_padding=”30px|30px|30px|30px|false|false” link_option_url_new_window=”on” border_width_all=”1px” box_shadow_style=”preset1″ global_colors_info=”{}”]Interested in more articles like this?\u00a0 Don’t forget to subscribe!<\/h2>\n