The Epistemology of African History: An Original Methodological Framework for Decolonising Historical Knowledge Production in Nigeria

This dissertation develops an original epistemological and methodological framework for decolonising historical knowledge production in Nigeria, critically engaging with the dominant Western epistemological traditions that continue to shape Nigerian historical scholarship, archival practice, and history education. The decolonisation of African history has been advocated since the 1960s, yet Nigerian historiography remains significantly structured by the methodological conventions, source hierarchies, and periodisation frameworks inherited from colonial scholarship. The dissertation employs a meta-theoretical and empirical methodology, combining systematic philosophical analysis of epistemological assumptions in 200 Nigerian historical studies published between 2010 and 2024, analysis of Nigerian university history curriculum documents across 20 institutions, and primary research involving 70 in-depth interviews with Nigerian academic historians, oral tradition specialists, indigenous knowledge holders, and history education policymakers across all six geopolitical zones. Critical theory, the Epistemology of the South by Santos, the Decolonial Theory by Ndlovu-Gatsheni, and the African Philosophy of History by Wiredu jointly provide the theoretical anchors. The dissertation proposes the Afrocentric Historical Epistemology Framework, which integrates oral tradition, material culture evidence, linguistic reconstruction, and Arabic-script documentation on equal epistemic footing with European colonial archival sources. Original contributions include the framework itself, a Nigerian Indigenous Historical Sources Typology, and a decolonised history curriculum model for Nigerian universities. Keywords: historical epistemology, decolonisation, African historiography, Nigeria, indigenous knowledge.