History going extinct in the educational sector and the world at large

History to E.H Carr can be defined as the “study of the historian and his facts”. History has overtime now been downgraded and branded irrelevant by most schools and institutions. Job opportunities do not abound as it once did for historians who are now found working in the few research centers in the country and few schools that still do history to provide a variety of subjects to enhance their prestige and marketability.

It must be noted that the decline of history which is dubbed irrelevant and a piece of garbage by many is connected to the extinction of our cultural values and languages. Native languages are rarely spoken by this new generation and so are history less talked about or bragged about by students when such knowledge would have added their growth and understanding of the world at large.

History must stop being undervalued; a man who underrates the importance of history is doing so at its own peril. It embracing that history is no longer an important subject in schools as it is not even in their lists of government. In few schools that do history they are not studied by a lot of students. For example in Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Abeokuta out of 194 students in a set only 10 does history which amount to approximately 5.2%, a slim margin by any standards. Then if you consider the number of Arts student in the small school, 60 of them the percentage will be approximately 16.7%.

Yes, history might be boring but they are a lot of interesting things hidden in the topic that will make the boring side seem interesting, anyone who values the sacred prestige of knowledge will understand that the knowledge of history is worthwhile. History gives that pride and bragging rights about knowing past events and dates of important things. I once asked a mate if she knew anything about Uthman Dan Fodio and her reply was that of a semi-illiterate, she has heard his name before but don’t know anything about him. Is this all? Where was he born? What made him famous? Did she know he established the first theocratic state in the 19^th century? He fought the famous battle called jihad and it is from this jihad the Boko Haram sect are trying to do in the North-Eastern region of Nigeria? It’s from the idea of theocratic state that the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria set up a theocracy in parts of Syria?

If this is too hard for her, then a further question made my head spin, she doesn’t know the name of the 1^st ever military head of states in Nigeria, General J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi, or can she lists Nigerian former leaders? Or the year the famous Lagos was bombarded and annexed?  Or who was the first European to come to Nigeria, what year did he arrive and where did he first visit? This development is not fear, so tell me history haters, if you don’t know the history of your country, how much less will you know your tribal history, your lineage history and your linguistically history?

It seems hard but you haven’t even tried, knowledge is the greatest gift you can ever achieve, yes you may get this informal on the net at the touch of your smartphones but won’t it be a mile better to have this information in your brain so if he need arises you will bring it out in an emphatic fashion that will shun people and made an everlasting impression on them.

So why is this history so important? Isn’t it a store house of meaningless and needless values? History according to another historian ‘is the study of the past to proffer solutions to the problems and intrigues of the future’. In the book of Ecclesiastes written by Solomon, a famous statement he keeps on making is that ‘there is nothing new under the sun’. So how this statement does concerns our discussion here? History as a study of the past can indeed proffer solutions to the problems that will arise in the future as everything that is happening now has been done before.

For example the use of chemical weapon in Syria in August 2013 by the government on its citizen would have been blown into a full scale war if not for the lessons past wars has thought us that war isn’t profitable to any party involved in it.

Also, the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to control huge territories of Iraq and Syria and their killing of Christians and European citizens would have been blown into a full scale invasion of the land by American and European troops but the lessons of America failed invasion of Afghanistan and their policing of the Middle East which was a huge failure as they clearly didn’t achieve their goals.

The Boko Haram sect aim and objective can be linked to the Sokoto Jihad which was crumbled by the British, now they seek s to create a theocratic state even if their tactics and mode of attacks do not follow the doctrines of the Prophet Muhammad. Also, through history the doctrines this Boko Haram sect believes in can be linked to the Muslim brotherhoods of Wahhabiyya and Tijāniyya's. 

Russia’s takeover of Crimea and their sponsorship of the Ukraine rebels who wants to join Russia. This situation with the help of history has showed us two historical instances. First, Russia takeover of Crimea and their attempts to gain Ukraine through history proposes the notion of Russia aim to actualize the fragmented USSR kingdom. Also, this could have led to another world war between Russia and the rest of the world with probable allies as China and some other Asian countries for Russia but for the lessons of the two world war which only lead to destruction of lives, dislocation of families and a massive death troll running into millions and yet nothing was achieved.

As you can see, these European countries and America have then used this knowledge of history to find out a better punishment and they did imposing financial, importing and trading sanctions on Russia which has harmed their currency and economy slower but painfully. Slowly, Putin is reducing his support for the Ukraine rebels and slowly the world is winning the war without a single bullet and a single life been sacrificed. Bravo Zulu for history, well done.

Iran plans to build a nuclear weapon would have been blown to full proportion if not for the knowledge of history.  Iran were like Russia given sanctions, far harder than the Russians as they could not sell their oil to America and European countries and this nearly killed their economy, and now Iran has lost the war and finally signed a deal to end their nuclear plans.

Science and technology has taken over the world as they are wowed by the sheer magic and innovativeness of intelligent inventors but even these innovators must acknowledge the vital contribution of history in this matter. The smartphones we use today would not have been possible if historians had not taken notes of Alexander Graham Bell invention of the telephone on March 10, 1876 and the invention before him helped create a platform for today’s amazing smartphones.

History helped develop communication if you practically look at this instance, from the story of Noah who used a dove to communicate, it was from this story of Noah that happened many millions of years ago that man trained pigeon to send message during wars, to communicate with war commanders and then it progressed to the post of messenger, to the telegraph and telephone, the post office,  then to the e-mail we now use all use now.

Also it is through the knowledge of the industrial revolution that the world modern industries and firms had evolved to this present status. Like a famous saying says ‘Inventions are a result of necessities’ and these necessities is what history provides a platform for, by laying the foundation for such necessities. For example, ancient man roamed around for food, then they lived in caves, then build mud houses and the necessity of this led to the building of modern houses.

Modern books the e-books also couldn’t have been possible today without history. 3500 BC - Symbols onto Tablets, 2400 BC - Papyrus Scrolls, 600 BC - Standardized writing system developed, 500 - 200 BC – Parchment, 200 BC - Wax Tablets developed, 105 AD - The Paper Revolution, 400 - 600 AD - Illustrations added to the book, 868 AD - The First Printed Book, 1041 AD - 1230 AD - The First Moveable Type of printers, 1250 AD - Block Printing in Egypt, 1439 - 1450 AD - Moveable Type in Europe, 1455 AD - The Guttenburg Bible, 1490 AD - 1500 AD  -The Printing Revolution, 1501 AD - The Precursor to the Modern Paperback, 1639 AD - 1640 AD - America's First Book, 1832 AD - Book sleeves appear, 1832 AD to 1860 AD - Birth of the "cheap" Novel, 1920 AD - 1938 AD - The fall and rise of the Paperback, 1985 AD - First books on CD, 1995 AD - Books sold Online, 2000 AD - 2006 AD The start of the e-books Market and 2007 AD - The Kindle becomes the first e-book reader. Without history this step by step improvement won’t have been possible.

In the medical sector, if not for history that was carefully preserved, the herbs and tested cures for illness, the medical sector won’t have improved to this extent. Herbs are now increasingly been used to treat diseases as doctors are not encouraging the eating of different vegetables to prevent ailments.

Lastly, the history of nations has provided a pride to develop and maintain their ancenstors standard. For instance when America was founded by English settlers, it was declared a ‘Land of freedom’ and it is rightfully so now. Democracy which their ancestors championed has been passed down to this present generation and the world at large because of the preservation of the history of the American democratic system which is now used in most countries in the world. Also, it is from history we know that Indians were the original occupant of America.

History has helped us Nigerians preserve our culture and languages through written and oral sources, archeology and linguistics which is the study of language but the rate at which history is gradually becoming extinct is alarming. Unlike other languages of the world, Itshekiri, Tiv, Idoma, Chamba and other minority tribes can’t be found on the internet which calls for the knowledge of history to perceive this languages before extinction comes of it like the Klallam in the US, Livonian in Latvia, Pazeh in Taiwan, Iberian in France and Spain and etc., the list is endless. Most Nigerian languages fail in the endangered categories of languages in the world.

History has also helped space travelling become real. From the works of Galileo to the German V2 the first rocket to reach 100km from the Earth’s surface (the boundary of space), to the first man to land on the moon, history has contributed its vital bit in astrology.

What do I profit from studying it? You gain experience like never before gained. There is a saying that ‘experience is the best teacher’. Will you wait to learn from your experience when someone ‘under the sun’ has experienced the same time? It is clear that all fields has learnt a lot of history but like all good things you can never know its true significance until you have lost it.