M AY O C O L L E G E

INTER-SCHOOL ONLINE SEMINAR ON

I N T E R N AT I O N A L S O L I D A R I T Y D A Y
 TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

African American and African

01 Introduction 06 History Movement
African - American History
02 Synopsis 07 Movement
Dalit history
03 movement 08 African History Movement

04 The Movement 09 The Effects

05 The Effects 10 References

 INTRODUCTION

The use of historiography by social and regional groups as

a means of building solidarity and strengthening
communities.

Mayo College, Ajmer’s official entry to Inter-School Online

Seminar by Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar.
SYNOPSIS
“ History will always glorify the hunter until the lion tells his story”- Chinua Achebe
through this presentation we aim to understand :
• The importance of historiography (historical literature) of a community in terms of identity and
how that community is viewed by society and authorities.
• How Discovering and changing this historiography acts as a means of protest against
discrimination and mistreatment.
• The benefits enjoyed by communities with well-known histories like greater unity and greater
respect.
• How we look at the Dalit history movement in India as well as regional history movements like in
international perspective, we look at the African-American History movement in USA and similar
movements in Africa.
C A S E S T U D Y- Dalit History Movement
Causes
• There were no mainstream books or papers properly articulating the
history or achievements of Dalits through history.
• There was lack of historical sense among the Dalit community about
their history. Dalit historical achievements and figures were not known
• Hence Society assumed that Dalits had no significant achievements or
were not worthy of their own history. Hence they treated them with
contempt. The Dalit community was also not aware of its history.
• This Dalit History started as a way of protesting these societal labels and
give self-confidence to the Dalit community as well as too understand
their current problems.
 THE
MOVEMENT
• The beginnings can be traced back to the 60s with famous authors like Baburao
Bagal, Shantabai Kamble, etc.These writings were mainly focused on displaying
the everyday life of Dalits.
• In the 90s this movement expanded to other languages like Hindi and English
with writers like Vikram Harijan, etc.
• Post-2010 there has been transformation in the movement due to Dalit people
entering the academia and pop culture, earlier they were outsiders.Many
universities have started hiring Dalits. This has led to a lot serious academic
work being produced by them, notable people include Guru Prakash Paswan,
Suraj Yengde, academic works include Makers of Modern Dalit history by
Sudarshan Ramabhadran and Guru Prakash Paswan and ‘A Dalit history’ by
Meena Kandaswamy. Movements like ‘Dalit History Month’ on social media and
Films like Article 15 and Jai Bhim have brought this discourse to a mainstream
audience.

Guru Prakash Paswan

THE EFFECTS

02 It created awareness about the issues and

historical mistreatment faced by the dalit
community.
It’s created a sense of solidarity among
03 the dalit people and sense of pride about
their culture, hence strengthening them.

Dalit panthers movement

01 It brought to light the numerous

contributions made by dalits in
fields like theatre, science, arts.
Icons like Meghnad Saha,
Jyotiba Phule, etc became
household names.
Meghnad Saha-a scientific icon
A F R I C A N - A M E R I C A N H I S TO RY
M O V E M E N T A N D A F R I C A N H I S TO RY
M O V must
“History E Mrestore
E N Twhat slavery took away, for it is the social
damage of slavery that the present generations must repair and
offset,” -Arthur A. Schomburg
Causes:
• Both cultures were recovering from long-term Colonial rule that
destroyed their sense of pride and unity, they needed something African-Americans protesting
to unite for and a reason to fight for their culture.
• Their only documented histories had been made by foreigners
with racist biases and aim to show these people as savage and
uncultured. They needed a way to contest their history against
the authorities oppressing them and needed to take control it so
they could teach their own history to the world and later
generation to strengthen the community and later generation.
• Due to poverty, authorities did not respect them, they needed a
properly documented history to show how they had been
mistreated throughout history and to understand how to solve
these problems. History book written by Burkano
Faso's first president
A F R I C A N - A M E R I C A N H I S TO RY M O V E M E N T

• The first Black histories started around 1900, many were ordinary
people and autodidacts such as William Wells Brown and George
Washington Williams with no outside support.
• African-American histories reached New heights during the Civil
Rights movement, when the authorities said they were inferior people,
they contested this with history, many prominent historians like David
L. Lewis, Barbara Ramsby, Claiborne Carson. But activists like Martin
Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X did pivotal work, pointing out how
authorities had oppressed them for centuries and pointing out
achievements of African- Americans.
• In recent times, the African-American peoplehave effectively used
social media as another way to spread their culture, movements like
‘Black history month’, social media accounts like ‘Black History’ and
new-age academics like Ibram X. Kendi have done amazing work for
the movement.
A F R I C A N H I S TO RY M O V E M E N T
• The African history movement began in the 1950s to contest
European claims that “ African history was an empty void before
the Europeans claim” as many colonizers believed, they used
such feeble excuses to discriminate against Africans, these
shared histories were necessary to create solidarity in countries.
• Nigeria was a leader in this movement with trailblazers like
Kenneth Dike and Samuel Jackson whose ‘History of the
Yorubas’ is still widely read.
• Historians like Cheikh Anta Diop in Ghana and Florence
Mahoney played essential roles as well.
• Establishment of institutions like University of Ibadan, Kampala
College and Institute of Ethnological Research of Rhodesia
have helped in continuing this rich legacy of historiographies to
the present.
 THE EFFECTS
01 Both movements have helped create a African American icons
sense of pride in both these respective
communities. Uniting them under a 04 It created awareness for huge contributions
shared history have helped create sense made by African Americans in technology,
of solidarity in the society. science, pop culture, etc Like George
Washington Carver, Valerie Thomas and
02
By strengthening societies and Ronald Mcnair.
contesting false claims by legal
authorities, they have helped in 05 African historiography has detailed the rich
heritage of Africa by highlighting wealthy
improving their cultures conditions and civilisation like the Mali empire, Great
status. Zimbabwe, Abyssinia and popularising
03 They have brought to light the discrimination legends like Mansa Musa, Shaka Zulu, etc.
and mistreatment faced by these people to a
global stage, by studying how their problems
came to be, academics in these fields are
working to solve how they can be solved
now. In light of these findings, US
government is trying to uplift the African-
American people, colonizing nations have
also pledged to help nations colonized by
them.
 CONCLUSION
T H E I M P O RTA N C E O F H I S T O RY
• History is what holds people together, the shared history of the Indian freedom struggle
is still used as a glue to hold this nation together. In the North Korea, the Kim family
propagate history centered around them and their ‘achievements ‘ to justify their rule.
• Hence Throughout history, oppressive legal authorities has sought to control history of
the oppressed, in India they created a history of loss and sadness to show Indians as a
weak people, in Africa they forced the belief of Africans as a race too savage to record
history, in both cases these false histories were used as justification for oppression.
• Thus, these people contested this false history as a means of protesting these false
labels, to show why this oppression was unjustified and to encourage their
downtrodden members to feel proud of their people and heritage.
• in all cases, this has led to greater unity as members around these shared histories and
historical figures and these new histories have given impetus to greater economic and
cultural prosperity among these people
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h t t p s : / / w w w. l i b r a r y. u p e n n . e d u / b l o g s / l i b r a r i e s - n e w s / d i v e r s i t y - s t a c k s - d a l i t - l i t e r a t u r e
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e g o e s + g l o b a l & a q s = c h r o m e . . 6 9 i 5 7 . 11 9 4 3 j 0 j 7 & s o u r c e i d = c h r o m e & i e = U T F - 8
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m p _ g s a = 1 & a m p _ j s _ v = a 9 & u s q p = m q 3 3 1 A Q K K A F Q A r A B I I A C Aw % 3 D % 3 D # a m p _ t f = F r o m
%20%251%24s&aoh=16698121497680&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2
F w w w. g o o g l e . c o m & a m p s h a r e = h t t p s % 3 A % 2 F % 2 F w w w. n b c n e w s . c o m % 2 F s e l e c t % 2 F s h o p p i n g
%2Fgoodreads-african-american-biographies-ncna1256460
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black-historians- 1790877664/amp?
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%20%251%24s&aoh=16700706420926&referrer=htt ps%3A%2F
% 2 F w w w. g o o g l e . c o m & a m p s h a r e = h t t p s % 3 A % 2 F % 2 F w w w. t h e r o o t . c o m % 2 F w h o - w e r e - t h e -
great-black-historians-1790877664
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REFERENCES

Images:
https://images.app.goo.gl/bEuTXXp7ok5NoK9X8 •
https://images.app.goo.gl/U2P2jLq5HdX6a3Nq8 •
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https://images.app.goo.gl/c1QrriSnYn9Pm1ZU6
https://images.app.goo.gl/CwaXgvRBJSykZr7R6
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to to thank Vidya Devi Jindal School, Hisar for

organizing this event, the teacher-in-charge for helping us
through this process and the Organising committee for being so
helpful. I would also like to thank Mayo College for giving us
thus opportunity to go for this event and Mr. Harjit Singh, our
supervisor for his helpful inputs.
THANK
YOU