Answer to Question #300206 in History for Nessa

Question

Why did huge Trevor Roper reach the conclusion “perhaps in the future there will be African history to teach, but at present there is none. There is only the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness and darkness is not a subject of History”. 

Answer 1

n 1945, British historian Hugh Trevor Roper galvanized the Eurocentric view when he wrote, “the only history in Africa is the history of Europe in Africa." Hugh Trevor Roper reached this conclusion because given the self-perpetuation of cultural exceptionalism, it is not surprising that African history remains mythologized under the shadows of Euro-American history and yet, the dissemination of Islam in Africa by first Arabs and then African Muslims, and the role that Islam and Muslims have played in the development of Africa, are essential to a balanced and accurate understanding of African history.