HISTORY: THE CRADLE OF KNOWLEDGE
(Berray Sowe, History Major – UTG, Current Secretary General of EDUSA)
Date published: 27th March, 2024
Publisher: IPRO-MINISTRY, EDUSA.
By: Berray Sowe
Year: August, 2023
Phone: 3141643
Email: bs22112075@utg.ed.gm
Most often than not, many people, most especially those at the exterior of History, position the discipline at the undersurface in the gamut of the players in the game of knowledge. In fact, to some, History is a mere fictitious story; while to some, it is a discipline for the academic deficiency. Others view it as a hot-bed for academic manipulations.
Deniably, this exotic, egregious, and myopic representation of the true nature of history renders it invalid. This is sure by dent of history being the source of all knowledge regardless of the discipline in question. In fact, when history is written, knowledge is produced.
The study of history helps us to comprehend how things change, the factors that trigger change, and what compositions of an institution or a society persevere regardless of change. It makes us understand how the past has crafted and continues to craft global, national, and domestic relationships among people and societies. When something is considered to be history, it means that it has undergone rigorous enquiry and examination before its establishment.
History fundamentally deals with continuing research, investigation, gathering, interpretation, and the impact of knowledge of the past to rightly carve the most productive present; and it appropriately paves the avenue for the best future. That is the only moment people can attain their very dignity. Thus, Ali Mazrui proclaimed, “People denied history are people denied dignity.’’ This is why there is history in all facets of knowledge and human activities, by extension. Let’s say economic history, political history, cultural history, military history, intellectual history, social history, medical history, legal history, religious history, history of science, history of art, diplomatic history, etc. All these areas encompass the entire knowledge that people require to progress their living conditions and maintain a decent living.
Correspondently, this article, though not exhaustive, interrogates and establishes some of the factors that serve as point-men for history as regards its justification of being the source of all knowledge.
Foremost, when we talk about knowledge, we refer to a set of information that has been acquired through experience, research, or education; it is the body of what we know about something [the Oxford Languages].
Justifiably, whether knowledge is acquired through experience, research or education, its source is history; because the acquisition of knowledge through any of these means requires navigating through the river of the past in order to reach an insightful conclusion on a particular topic or subject matter. Certainly, the nexus that exists between the acquisition of knowledge and the past qualifies history as the indisputable originator of knowledge. This is by virtue of history occupying a special abode in the past that every discipline has to visit in order to be a complete field of study.
Imperatively, the beginning and establishment of any knowledge about a particular subject matter, either through research, experience, or education, demands the excavation of an already existing knowledge of a similar or the same subject matter. This applies to all knowledge of every discipline; thus, makes history the chief cock among all the fields of study.
Second, history is every discipline, and every discipline is history. It is the only discipline that, in its operations, employs the tools of other disciplines. This method is referred to as inter-disciplinary approach. It is where history makes use of areas such as Science, Linguistics, Geography, Anthropology, Archaeology, etc., to establish historical facts.
Well and truly, every area of knowledge has history. Take, for examples, English Language, Mathematics, Science, Religious studies, Economics, Agricultural Science, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Politics, Sociology, etc. All these areas have histories that cannot be ignored if the comprehensive fathom of the each of the areas is to be established.
Factually, the understanding of any field of study will be sketchy if it does not encapsulate the origin, contributors, and configuration of that discipline in question. The English Specialist must study the history surrounding the concomitant invasions to the British Isle, leading to the institutionalisation of the English language; the Mathematics and the Physics specialists must surround themselves with the historical information of the famous Greek Mathematician, Archimedes who is known as the Father of Mathematics. The Economics majors require historical knowledge about Adam Smiths in order to understand the evolution of modern economics. If the political scientist has to make a fair-minded analysis of the present Russia-Ukraine War, he or she has to arm him or herself with the historical arsenal of the umbilical correlation that existed between the two countries during the former Soviet Union (USSR), which foundered in 1992, leading to the end of the Cold War – the establishment of the European Union, and the expansion of NATO, triggering Russia’s challenge to any expansion of NATO by USA and Europe over the former components of the defunct Soviet Union, which Ukraine was a faction of. The same thing applies to all the other disciplines.
What many people, who misplace history, do not realise is that, the very moment you step back, enter the past, tap information from it to acquire knowledge or build your understanding and mastery of your field of study, you are within the borders of history. This is inevitable in all the disciplines of knowledge. The advantage that history has over all the disciplines is that, in dealing with anything, history commences with its origin.
Going further, as argued by E H Carr, “History is the unending dialogue between the present and the past.” What we ought to be reminded of is that there is no present knowledge that has no connection with a particular event or knowledge in the past.
The past and the present are intrinsically related, and history serves as the intermediator. For instance, as human beings, our societies are products of history because we have evolved from people and societies that existed in the past. We cannot have knowledge of ourselves and our societies without studying those people and societies that came before us. This is why all the disciplines, most especially those in the humanities such as Sociology, Law, Literature, etc., employ history in their services.
Again, humans’ society, as postulated by George Hegel, is invariably characterised by contradiction. Thus, a society that lives in contradiction is not stable. To find remedies for the political, economic, religious, cultural, educational, and social contradictions in our society, we need a well-refined knowledge to do that. This leads to the emergence of research, which aims at either verifying existing knowledge, discovering new knowledge, or expanding on existing knowledge in its quest to solve the contradictions in humans’ societies. Now, the question that begs an answer is: can research be conducted without recourse to history or going through the past of the problem or a similar phenomenon to the problem in concern in order to establish a well-polished knowledge as a remedy to those problems in our society? The answer is a mighty ‘NO’.
Conclusively, history is the cradle or source of all knowledge; therefore, history avails us with the perspectives on how things have always been done and why they have been done in that manner. It is the only discipline that directly teaches us ‘’ourselves’’. This is why an American historian, David McCullough, defined history as “who we are and why we are the way we are.” If we critically x-ray it, we will realise that the knowledge of every discipline or field of study seeks to do one thing: fostering the refinement of human live and livelihood which cannot be actualised in the absence of acquiring concrete knowledge about ourselves. And, the acquisition of this knowledge about ourselves will be inane without history.
To cap it all, in the absence of history, there will be no knowledge. As the old adage has it ‘’without yesterday, there will be no today, and to know today, one has to study yesterday’’. By this, it is apropos that history is the tipping point of every knowledge.
Article By: Berray Sowe
Published by the IPRO-MIMISTRY, EDUSA-UTG