From Metropole to Margin in UNESCO’s General History of Africa – Documents of Historiographical Decolonization in Paris and Ibadan

Abstract

Abstract:This archival research report details the uses and disuses of UNESCO’s Paris archives of its General History of Africa. By looking in detail at what African historians have been doing as well as writing, we can reach a better understanding of the reality of African history writing in the immediate postcolonial era. That means taking into account the complexity of the archive; and using J.F. Ade-Ajayi’s archive in Ibadan as an example we can see that the vast Paris collection of material relating to the writing of the General History of Africa is complemented by documents scattered across different archives.