Sexing up Nigerian history
An excellent article here by leading Nigerian military history Max Siollun on the pressing need to make Nigerian history sexy. Without a robust collective understanding of history, how can a society move forwards?
The struggle for moral authority in Zimbabwe
6 hours ago
Posts
1 comments:
I have been following Max Siollun's effort on Facebook to make Nigerian history not just sexy but fresh, surprising and revealing. As all history should be. And I have been impressed.
I too was surprised by how articulate and well spoken past political leaders have been, especially the military boys. I suspect this is not just because I have not heard them before but because many of our recent and present leaders have been so uninspiring. Listening to Ironsi I was struck that he seemed to be what used to be called a 'cultivated' person; informed, considered and articulate. It made me feel the very worse, in all our strife, has triumphed in the last 50 years.
One small thing about 'sexy' history. There is an excessive focus on documents and libraries as a source of history but what illuminates Max Siollun's grasp of Nigerian history, and makes his take so fresh is that he has talked to so many people in the know. He seems to know what the participant and bystander saw and did.
Post a Comment