Teaching African History in Nigerian Secondary Schools: Curriculum Analysis and Professional Reform Proposals

This study critically analyses the content, methodology, and ideological orientations of African history as taught in Nigerian secondary school curricula, with the goal of developing professional curriculum reform proposals that advance historically rigorous, Afrocentric, and analytically robust history education. Nigerian secondary school history curricula, governed by the West African Examinations Council and the National Educational Research and Development Centre, have been critiqued for perpetuating colonial-era narratives and failing to adequately represent pre-colonial African civilisational achievements, the slave trade, and the independence movement. Using a professional curriculum analysis design, the study examines WAEC history syllabuses and approved textbooks from 2019 to 2024, conducts focus group discussions with 40 history teachers from secondary schools in Lagos, Kano, Enugu, and Bauchi, and reviews decolonial history education literature. The Curriculum Theory and the Decolonial Education Framework by Dei provide the analytical lenses. Findings reveal that pre-colonial African history is accorded inadequate curriculum time relative to European history topics, and that the slave trade is frequently taught from a perspective that minimises African agency. Professional recommendations include a NERDC-convened history curriculum review panel, mandatory Afrocentric historiography training for history teachers, and the development of indigenous-authored supplementary history reading materials. Keywords: African history, curriculum reform, secondary education, Nigeria, Afrocentric education.