Organizing knowledge involves more than assembling multiple sources. Historians must ask critical questions about each one: Is it authentic? Is it original? Is it reliable? Is it typical? Who created it? When and where and why was it created? Their goal is to “choose reliable sources, to read them reliably, and to put them together in ways that provide reliable narrates about the past.”
This means historians cannot simply assume that sources are telling the truth.
In our battle against racism in scholarship, Africa-centered historians can neither ignore nor bend counter evidence. Doing so deceives our readers, dishonors our ancestors, and diminishes our own reputations. Instead, our writing must involve a constant conversation between the perspective and the evidence.
Just as West African farmers burn a field to clear it of weeds, fell trees and bush, anyone writing African history must first tackle the long, poisoned legacy of racism in Western scholarship.