It’s African Time!

“Man is a historical animal, and African man is no exception. Just as everywhere else all over the world, he created his own history, and his own idea of it. On the factual level the proofs and products of this creative ability are there before our eyes in the form of methods of agriculture, cooking, pharmacy, common law, political organizations, the productions of art, religious ceremonies, and highly developed rules of etiquette. Through all the centuries since man first appeared, Africans have shaped an independent society which by its vitality alone bears witness to their historical genius.

This history, which came into being empirically, a priori, was thought out and interiorized a posteriori both by individuals and by social groups. In this way it became an intellectual frame of reference, a spiritual and emotional authority, a reason and a setting for living, a model.

But historical consciousness reflects the society to which it belongs, and even each significant phase in the evolution of that society, so it is clear that the Africans’ conception of their own history and of history in general will be marked by their own particular development. The mere fact of isolation is enough to restrict a society’s historical vision. Thus the King of the Massi in Upper Volta used to bear the title of Mogho-Naba, King of the World -a good illustration of the influence of technical and material limitations on people’s ideas of social and political reality.

One sees, then, that African time is occasionally a mythical and social time. But Africans are also conscious of being the active instruments of their own history, and, as we shall find, African time, as well as being mythical and social, is genuinely historical too.”

General History of Africa Vol 1 Methodology and African Prehistory
Chapter 2 The place of history in African society
BOUBOU HAMA AND J. KI-ZERBO
pg. 66