Topic: Have you ever questioned the history books written by your own country? (Read 82 times)

Do you mean history of the African people in the context of them before European colonization  or after the powers of Europe decided to divide Africa a conquer it?
I ask before there were many administrations which treated the local African people in a very cruel and inhumane way during the process of exploitation of natural resources and I would be quite a surprise to me if historians of those same countries would be willing to openly admit on the crimes they committed against entire populations for the sake of power and wealth. It is quite similar to the case of the empire of Japan and it's colonies, The japanese commited crimes against humanity and performed cruel experiments on people from the peninsula of Korea, it is well documented and there is enough proof of it, though, no japanese historian of that time dared to mention it, even to this day there are Japanese politicians willing to deny the obvious crimes the Empire of Japan carried out against people in their annexed colonies.

Although some Western historians tried to distort some historical fact in some of the books they wrote about my country. But some of the historical books by Western authorities are the most accurate. I have read some of them and find them better than some of the books written by the government and other local authors. Some European authors have been truthful about African history.

Sometimes, stepping outside one's own country offers a broader perspective. The same event, written by people from different backgrounds and regions, can correct distorted histories.

Much of the fighting history written about the current Ukraine war is painted incorrectly as it is happening. Anybody can go look at the war to see it.

History books are like science fiction books without the science.

History is written by the victorious.
Look what Chinese Dynasties did. I know that most history is modeled to sound better.
The leader ship of a country wins single handily a war against another country. History is belittling events like pest break outs.
Just read the medieval history about that event which wiped out 50 % of the European Population the bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death     

as far as a country's history is concerned, there's always a bias that tend to tell it to favor the angle behind the history and its rear to find a neutral history that's void of a pre-defined narrative that's not in favor of a particular part of the whole makeup of the story.

in ancient time, it wasn't all that pronounced but at the present, the media has made it worse that most of the event that's being recorded at the present that will form what the people in the future will come to see as history to most of the things that's happening at the present are totally one sided. a lot of the slave trade history are usually one sided that always takes out the part where indigenous chief took charge of the capturing of the citizens and selling them for the people that came in to use them for Thier own personal gains. there's always a narrative that sends a sense of pity to the reader and often time, it's part of the reason why we continue to have wars that should have been long gone resurface again because we are being fed with lies that has formed a major part of our views on most history.

I've had to question a lot of the local communal history that relates to what led to inter communal wars in the past and inquired to know more on why most of the communities within me are at war with themselves and most times, when i try to hear both side of same story, the narrative always makes me wonder if they are telling same story because of how disjoint the narrative is. most history is 40% biased and 60% true.

I haven't watched Attack on Titan but I sure can relate to the distorted history of my country especially when our presidents are assassinated and an outsider ends up installing a new president to take over the government. I'm sure this isn't new anymore when a country has two political parties fighting every now and then.

The brainwashing has been done over and over in our lives especially when the country only has one TV station for a particular region. TV educated the new generation like the revolution united us all and was the truth when outsiders funded it.

I prefer to read the history of my country from unbiased local or foreign historians. Sometimes the account of the government is filled with religious, political, or tribal bias. Each government that grabs power will write the national history to favor the political ideologies and religious and tribal beliefs of the political leaders.

I belong to a tribe that fought a civil war with the national government. In our history books, you will never read about the details of the war rather our tribes are portrayed as successionists that threatened the coexistence of my country. Meanwhile, the root cause of the civil war is never discussed.

I can only think of one occasion regarding my own country and the books issued by them for students. I was helping one of my cousins to clean his room up and I found a box completely full of history books, math books and so... it called my attention how the history books made so much emphasis on how bad and terrible facism was in the second world war and they also made the industrial revolution to look like an era in which capitalists took advantage of workers, in many occasions disregarding the safety and well-being of their employees.
In short, history books were kind of bent to be in accordance to the lines of the National socialist party of my country. Those books were supposed to be printed and distributed to public schools, kept up by the state itself.

So yes, I believe I have experienced in my own personal way how the state and the established powers manipulate history.

History is crucial for every nation and people. But does the government sometimes glorify or even distort certain parts of it? I think it’s something we can sense during history classes—it’s often glaringly obvious. They tend to sum up certain events with a single sentence, leaving out the details, the causes, and the consequences. Teachers often just skip over those parts naturally, as if they’re not important.

Recently, watching Attack on Titan made me reflect on this even more. The “brainwashing” in Marley is incredibly effective. Both the Eldians and the Marleyans are victims of this one-sided education. It makes me wonder—does our own history education have similar issues? Are we also being shaped by a narrative that leaves out the bigger picture?