THE ROLES OF AFRICAN HISTORIANS IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: A CASE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The role of African historians in national development has been greatly undermined in Africa, particularly Nigeria. It has almost been forgotten how African historians, played major roles in nationalist movement to fight underdevelopment in Africa. Today, however, in 
understanding the divergent devastating political, economy and socio-religious crises, leading to underdevelopment in Africa, particularly Nigeria, there is need for a fundamental necessity to understand the histories of the past. The discipline became operational ideology for African Nationalist as well as driving philosophy that molded the ideology of African leaders, indeed African historians continued to provide a veritable instrument for justifying nationalist government policies and programmes after political independence was worn by most African countries in the 1960s, including Nigeria especially in the 1970s and 1980s, African historians provided the background for policies aim at removing the vestiges of colonialism and racism in the continent, especially in the area of acquiring technology that can help trigger development in Africa and get her out of this present state of  underdevelopment. The paper adopts a historical research method to gather evidence from the past to establish facts or refute any hypothesis. Primary source and Secondary materials were assessed to make this work worthy. The study findings are that; history can help trigger development in Africa and get her out of the present state of underdevelopment and also conclude that, there is an urgent need for African historians to use history as a tool for the reconstruction of the present African society