WRITTEN SOURCES OF AFRICAN HERITAGE

INTRODUCTION.
This is the presentation of the findings of what scholars have written about history. Although the Europeans are looking down upon Africans of being backward it is not the reality of the matter it is just speculations and they are trying to consolidate everything to their own hands as if they are the only ones who are superior. But all of the resources of the Africans they have taken them to their museums which is not good, because we the Africans were among the first people to undergore civilization before they were civilized.
The notion of written source is so broad as to be ambiguous if we take written to mean all that transmits the voice and sound. The written evidence includes inscriptions carved on stone, gramophone records, and coins in short any message that preserves language and thoughts regardless of its medium.
The common sources of history of to-day are the written records of the past. These sort of records stretch as far as the period of the Greeks and Romans and became more popular with the European penetration of Africa.
General problems
No comprehensive study study of the written sources of African history has so far been made because of chronological or regional specialization; the rare studies made have always been associated with compartmentalized fields of scholarly research.
Black Africa made a later appearance both in written history and as a field of modern research.

ETHNO-CULTURAL AREAS AND TYPES OF SOURCES

We have to consider Africa’s articulation into ethno cultural zones characterized by a variety of forces and above and beyond historical periods and spatial difference the actual neology of the source available

Ethno-cultural areas
In reality without denying the importance of such specific qualities a more searching historical examination shows lines of cleavage that are more complex and less sharp.
An objective historian has no right to make value judgments on the basis of his documentary material. But later has he the right to neglect what it has to offer on the grounds that it might be possibly be misleading.
While the general history covering the entire historical era and using the whole mass available documentation may accord as much importance to the Zaire basin as to the Niger basin or o Egypt, a study confined to pre-fifteen century written sources cannot.
To make a detailed inventory therefore we must review our texts by period and by region but we must recognize at the outset that through the regions and to a lesser degree through the historical periods what we have comes out to sources in a few languages on four of certain limited types and that they do not always originate in the area they tent of and not always contemporary with what they describe.


Typology of written sources
a) Languages in which documents have come down have come down to us are many but they do not all have the same importance. The African languages most used the ones conveying the greatest mass of information is: ancient Egyptian, Berber.Ethiopian languages. The most prolific languages are those of non-African origin.Greek.Latin, Arabic.
Chronologically our first written sources are hieratis Egyptian papyrs dating from the new Kingdom but giving texts that were probably first written as far back as the early middle Kingdom(beginning of the second millennium)in particular the papyrus known as instruction for king Merikers.

b) Generally, the material we have can be divided into narrative sources and achieved sources; the other part of the ordinary course of human existence. For Africa-excepting Egypt but including the maghrib-written documentary materials is almost entirely represented by narrative sources until the 12th century.
From the 12th century the archival document makes it’s appearance-rarely, however in the Maghrib.In Egypt archival documents become more plentiful under the Arybida and the Mantus 12th -15th centuries while the manuscripts of Ethiopian monasteries contain official documents by way of appendices. Other types can be enumerated as follows;

Narrative Sources
Ø Chronicles and annals
Ø Geographical works, accounts of travels, works by naturalists.
Ø Legal works religious works
Ø Literary works in the strict sense.
Archival Sources
Ø Private documents; family letters, business correspondence e.t.c
Ø Official documents enameting from the state or representatives of the state official correspondence, decrees, and letter patent, legislative and fiscal texts, juridico-religious documents


HISTORIOGRAPHY OF CLASSICAL AUTHORS

The writing of history (or historiography) by Greek authors such Herodotus and Pliny and traveler’s records from the Mediterranean world are useful to the African historian. Such writers and travelers described in details their journeys and adventures. They throw light on trade. The periplus of the Erythrean Sea has been useful in the reconstruction of the items of trade and the participants in the Indian and Red seas.
The second major sources of African history are deprived from Arab authors. The Arab authors appear to have been better informed than their classical predecessors. The introduction and the wide use of the Camel across the Sahara desert had not only facilitated the establishment of regular commerce but actually encouraged the creation of urban settlement and permanent trade routes between the North Africa and the Western Sudan. During the same period the Arab merchants had also founded colonial settlement along the coast of East Africa. The following are some of the Arab whose records are used in the writing of the African history.
El Bakri wrote a book around AD 1062. He described the wealth and trade of the kingdom of Ghana from accounts provided by the Spanish merchants. El Bakri lived in Spain.
El Idris wrote an account of East Africa about AD1154 in which he showed how trade and prosperity had increased. The coastal people were then doing business with people of Northern China. Some of the coastal traders visited Indonesia and Malaysia and the coast of India.
El Masudi wrote the meadows of Gold and views of Genres in about AD912. He described the people of coastal Africa.
During the reign of Mansa Musa, the famous king of Mali, a lamous Arab writer and historian called Ibn Batuta visited and wrote account of what he saw.
Ibni Khaldan has described as “the Herodotus of Africa” Herodotus of Africa Herodotus was a Greek historian. He was the first historian and is therefore regarded as ”the father of history”. Sheldon lived in the town of Tunnis. He was concerned with relationship between Africans and their neighbors in the Mediterranean world.

TARIKHS AND CHRONICLES
A Tarikh consists of a complete written text of oral traditions. A chronicle consists of direct written records of traditions with previously were preserved orally.Tarikhs and chronicles primarily concentrate on the role of rules.

RECORDS FROM EUROPEANS TRADES AND MISSIONARIES.
Between 1450 and 1800 many writings about the Guinea Cost began to appear. Some of the writings are those by da cada mosto,usodimara. Antorian da Nali and Diogo Cudomosto who left the account of their visits in the voyage of cudomosto.
The notable records on the Zambezi valley included the works of Manuel de Faira de Souza called the Kingdom of the Mwanamutapa and Antorio Suarez’s the converson of the Mwanamutupa.Father pinto wrote the kingdom of Kazembe.
The Portuguese missionaries visited Ethiopia between 1520-1527.Father Alvarez gives an account of the dominions rules by a legendary Christian ruler called Prester John. Mark Barey a witness of the Galla invasion wrote about the Galla towards the end of 19 century. The Turkish traveler called E.Chelebi wrote a general history of North East Africa during the same time. The Yemen Ambassador al-Khayuni al-Kawkabuni also left a rich account of his mission in 1647 during the reign of Emperor Fasiladus. His reign is not in Ethiopia Chronicles.

AFRICA IN THE 19TH CENTURY
The 19th century saw an effective and scientific exploration of Africa by the Europeans. It was also a period when attempts were made to lay the foundations for a natural appraisal of the historical achievements of Africa societies. The period witnessed the influx of missionaries explores and traders whose interests moved them into the interior.
Some of the leading 19th century literature that has served historians well include.T.E Bourdichs mission from cape coast to Ashante(1889)and Joseph Dupus’Journal of a residence in ashante(1824).Richard Burton wrote mission to Ghana, King of Dahomey, where he described Africana as inferior. After hid travel in the period 1821-1870

AFRICA IN THE 20TH CENTURY.
The first half of the century saw a rigorous examination and analysis of primary sources in the reconstruction of African history. However,the racist bias in the interpretation of African history persisted. Anthropologists like C.G.
Seligman claimed in his book Races of Africa published in 1930 that the civilizations of Africa were not indigenous because it was the work of the Hamites. He regarded Negroes and Bushmen as inferior and concluded that any advances in civilization which they may have made was due to Hamatic influence thus theory of African history was developed from earlier writings such as a history of colonization of African Races (1899) by Sir Harry Johnston and Maurice Delafosses’ work. Then Hamatic influence in Africa is now regarded as a myth.
Throughout the colonial period advancement was made in Africa historiography. Good local histories were written like that of A. Kagwa of Buganda. Finally some of the colonial administrations wrote less based works about the people they administer.







CONCLUSION
It would be wrong to think that the African continent is in state of hopeless as regards pre-fifteenth century written sources, but it is true that on the whole it is less well supplied than Europe or Asia. Nevertheless while a great part of the continent is totally devoid of such sources, for the remaining part of historical knowledge is possible and in the case of Egypt is based on documentation that is exceptionally rich. This means that failing the discovery of new material which seems improbable a meticulous and judicious exploitation of these texts can steal contribute a great deal to our knowledge.
Finally while our sources were written in framework of universal cultures with focal points outside Africa-classical and Islamic cultures they have the advantage that they are most of them common and can therefore be read in an African context, though we have to be careful when we come up against ideological presuppositions. This is particularly true of Arabic sources which still form the main basis of our knowledge.


REFERENCE:
Ogutu Mathias,A. (1991) an Introduction to African History. Nairobi. Nairobi University Press.
Ki- Zerbo, J (1981) History of Africa. 1: Methodology and African Pre-history. Heinemann. Califonia.UNESCO.