Colonial Historiography and the Representation of African Peoples: Critiquing Eurocentric Narratives

This study critically examines the construction of colonial historiography and its role in producing and sustaining Eurocentric narratives about African peoples, societies, and historical trajectories, with particular attention to how colonial historical scholarship shaped the formal history curricula adopted by Nigerian educational institutions after independence. The dominance of colonial frameworks in the writing and teaching of African history continues to influence how Nigerians understand their own past, often privileging European contact and colonial administration as the defining moments of African historical development. Using a professional critical discourse analysis methodology, the study reviews colonial history textbooks, parliamentary education committee records, and post-independence curriculum reform documents from Nigeria, supplemented by decolonial scholarship published between 2019 and 2024. The Decolonial Theory by Wa Thiong'o and Ndlovu-Gatsheni and the Post-Colonial Historiography Framework provide the analytical lenses. Findings reveal that colonial history texts systematically denied African political agency, erased pre-colonial state complexity, and presented colonial rule as a civilisational gift rather than an extractive political project. Post-independence Nigerian curricula have only partially addressed these distortions. The study recommends a systematic decolonisation of Nigerian history curricula from primary through to postgraduate levels, drawing on indigenous historical methodologies. Keywords: colonial historiography, Eurocentric narratives, decolonisation, African history, curriculum reform.