MYTHS, LEGENDS AND AUTOCHTHONISM IN THE HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE NIGERIAN SOCIETIES

Résumé

Concerted efforts have consistently been made by African historians, particularly, Nigerian historians, to construct and reconstruct their past with a view to reversing its Eurocentric posture that had been characterized by brazen and deliberate distortions and misrepresentations of African past. In the attempt to document Africa’s past, they only represented views that would serve their interests and neglected to employ the basic traditional tools that would help to illuminate the past of the people and not to relegate them to darkness. Now that African historians, nay Nigerian historians and scholars are emerging, the onus is on them to right the wrongs, reverse the ugly trends and employ the correct historical tools, including the use of oral traditions embedded in myths, legends and autochthonism, to reconstruct the Nigerian past with a view to placing events in their proper perspectives. Based on qualitative information analysis, consultation of archival material, coupled with the use of primary and secondary sources, this paper therefore, argues that the conceptual roles of myths, legends and autochthonism, should be considered and in fact, constitutes veritable tools in the reconstruction of Nigeria’s historiography that will promote unity, intergroup relationships and national understanding.