UNESCO
The project of the General History of Africa (GHA) launched by UNESCO in 1964 is entering into a new phase: this monumental work; involving more than 350 historians, will soon be adapted in video, making it accessible to the general public. A series of six documentaries of approximately one hour each will be produced by the famous BBC journalist and producer Zeinab Badawi, who is committed to revealing to the world what she calls, with humor, “UNESCO’s best-kept secret”.
The 8 volumes in the GHA collection, each with over 1,000 pages, are the culmination of exemplary international cooperation over the course of more than 35 years. However, this collection was not destined to remain on library shelves or in boxes. Considered a pre-eminent contribution to the knowledge of African history, the GHA paradoxically remains largely unknown to teachers, students and the general public, even in Africa and among the African Diasporas.
This landmark work, which tells the story of Africa since the origins of humankind up until the aftermath of independence, helps to rigorously deconstruct racial prejudices about Africans and people of African descent, which were inherited from the slave trade and slavery. Also, it provides a novel African perspective, using authentic sources, such as African oral traditions, while also relying on non-Western sources from India, Turkey, and China, as well as Ajami archives written in Arabic and in African languages.
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