History is undoubtedly significant in our everyday lives. There is an importance in every action and story told, as its repercussions leaves footprints in our world today. History provides us with an insight into our distinctly unique cultures of origin, as well as cultures with which we might be less familiar with. However, more often than not, there seems to be a history of “forgetting.” As Winston Churchill famously said, “History is written by the victors”, whereby only one viewpoint of an event is told. Many significant events throughout history have been retold time and time again, however the voices of many are not being heard. A lot of people choose to forget and move on from abhorrent mistakes made in the past, but it is important we remember them. Issues of race and racism throughout our many histories have been one-sided, whereby only one voice tells an important aspect of history. History cannot be defined through a single voice, and only when different perspectives are integrated to paint a picture of the past can we truly gain a meaningful understanding of our histories, no matter how difficult it is for us to learn about them. It is a way for us to reflect on our past, understand how it has shaped us as people, and how we can move forward from our mistakes to better our world.
A prominent chapter presented in Adam Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, is titled “The Great Forgetting.” In this section of the book, Hochschild demonstrates that the history of Belgian-Congo is one that is told in the white man’s voice, hence losing an integral part of that period in time by excluding the experience of the local people. The Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium is a principal example of how the presentation of history through one voice leads to significant aspects of an event being lost and “forgotten”. In the museum, it includes “anti-slavery campaigns” of 1890s against “Arab” slavers, plaque lists of names of several dozen Force Publique officers, a “memorial hall” with names of hundreds more white pioneers who died in the Congo, etc. What this museum fails to show is the atrocities and violence that took place in the Congo during Belgian rule. In “none of the museum’s galleries is there the slightest hint that millions of Congolese met unnatural deaths… Forgetting one’s participation in mass murder is not something passive; it is an active deed.” During a speech at the ceremony of the proclamation of Congo’s independence, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of an independent Congo reminds his people to “proudly explain to your children… and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom…Eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten.” It is imperative that the local Congolese people do not forget their struggle and fight for their independence. Lumumba’s constant use of the words “not forgotten” and “who will ever forget” serves as an important message for everyone. We need to remember our past as they are the roots and foundations of where we stand today.
The sheer scale of the atrocities that took place in Belgian-Congo numbs us to its individual realities: the captivity, suffering, and death of almost eight million Africans, a history unique to emotions. This dark part of history is something that many try to bury and forget, and understandably so. No one wants to remember such brutality and cruelty in an attempt to oppress an entire race. But we cannot afford to forget. Each generation must learn and understand the dark forces and culpable failures that allowed prejudice, discrimination, and persecution that lead to the violent deaths that spanned throughout not just Congo, but almost the entire African continent. “Never Again” serves as the slogan when remembering the Holocaust, and the same should be applied to many other histories, including that of Belgian-Congo. As we reflect again on these events, we must reach to them too, to ensure that “Never Again” is not just a slogan, but a reality.
Currently, most students learn history as a set narrative. Teaching history is now a process that reinforces the mistaken idea that the past can be synthesized into a single, standardized chronicle of several hundred pages. In the United States, students are not learning the same history as previous students, and neither are they as each other. It pretends that there is a uniform and collective story, which is similar to saying everyone remembers events the same way. But, history is anything but agreeable. History consists of collections of historians exchanging different, and often conflicting analyses. Debates about how to teach children American history began almost as early as the subject itself. The big question around this debate is as follows – how should students learn about oppression and exploitation alongside the great achievements of their country? And who decides which events become part of the national narrative as information comes to light? In Kyle Ward’s History in the Making, his research compares U.S. textbooks from different eras and has found both biases of exclusion and biases of description of how an event is portrayed to students. The facts of history remain constant, but each generation interprets for itself the meaning of the past, emphasizing or obscuring characters and issues to reflect the current attitudes in society. According to Ward, “even fewer students have any concept that history is constantly being affected by individual historians as well as our society’s own biases, prejudices, perspectives, and interpretations.” Ward shows that looking back and reconsidering history is a prerequisite of the very possibility of moving forward. Whilst history is continually changing based on our ever-changing interpretations of our past, it is important that we keep on doing this. All sides contain a portion of the truth, but it also has a specific biased perspective. Only by looking at histories from various viewpoints and analyses, no matter how disagreeable it may seem or how uncomfortable a violent past may be, can we truly gain a meaningful understanding of what it means to be human and how our past and our differences make us unique as a species.
The Civil War lessons taught to American students often depend on where the classroom is, with schools presenting accounts of the conflict that vary from state to state and even district to district. In a New York Times article, it discussed the contentious way in which Texas teaches U.S. history. The curriculum guidelines of the newly approved social studies curriculum by the Texas Board of Education in 2010 “promotes capitalism and Republican political philosophies…[and] textbooks that would downplay slavery as the cause of the Civil War.” Bobby Finger of the Jezebel website got hold of some excerpts from the newly published textbooks and reported his findings. These texts give little emphasis to the abhorrence of slavery and even claimed it to have some benefits. Many of these revised textbooks (not limited to Texas) do not portray an accurate depiction of the brutality of slavery and attempt to show an extremely one-sided telling of a distinct history of the United States. Once again, history is being told from the white victor’s voice, not the peoples who were being oppressed. This can be seen clearly in a passage taken from a textbook published by Houghton Harcourt, called United States History Texas: “Some slaves reported that their masters treated them kindly… some slaveholders provided adequate food and clothing for their slaves. However, severe treatment was very common.”
The winners may write history, but it’s up to others to teach it. Rather than seeking to transcend the inevitable clash of memories, students would better benefit by diving into the various conflicts presented and learning the many histories that compose our story. “Multiperspectivity” encourages an increasing diversity and cultural pluralism, as well as acknowledging voices’ of those who perhaps we would not otherwise have even known about. Some parts of history have left a permanent scar on the face of humanity and the world, but it is important we remember our mistakes, learn from them, and try to better understand how all histories have shaped the complex world we live in.