Title: No, history is not “what happened in the past” | by Doc Ayomide | Evocations | Medium
Headings: No, history is not “what happened in the past”
No, history is not “what happened in the past”
What it really is, and why that matters
History is a funny thing.
So no, history isn’t just what happened in the past. History is the RECORD of what happened in the past.
And, in time, becomes history.
A history, it turns out, is a form of power wielded by whoever gets to tell it.
Footnote:

Content: As an ancient Roman government official was recorded (in writing, of course) to have said, after he authorised the killing of the man who gave him his claim to fame…
What's written (at least generally) stays written.†
And, in time, becomes history. That’s why the proverb, made popular by Chinua Achebe, is so apt: "Until the lions have their own historians, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Tough luck, cat. A history, it turns out, is a form of power wielded by whoever gets to tell it. And although the lack of a written history has often disadvantaged people without one, it's exciting to see that changing, as more and more, the past is investigated and recorded and transmitted. Especially transmitted. Because although I said earlier that history is what is recorded, it only becomes OUR history when it is transferred to us. But that, my friends, is a subject for another day. Footnote: