History SHS 2 Semester 1 Week 1: Primary and Secondary Sources of History (NaCCA Aligned) | History SHS 2 SEM 1 WEEK 1 (WASSCE & NaCCA Aligned)

NaCCA Aligned: SHS 2, Semester 1, Week 1

Foundations of Historical Inquiry: Categorising and Analysing Sources

Welcome to SHS 2 History, where we move beyond merely reading the past to actively understanding how history is constructed. Effective historical writing relies entirely on credible evidence. This week, we establish the foundational skill of categorising and critically analyzing the sources that underpin every historical narrative.

The Core Distinction: Primary vs. Secondary Sources

Historians rely on a vast array of evidence, but all of it must be classified based on its proximity to the actual event being studied. The fundamental task of a historian is to differentiate between sources created at the time of the event and those created later through interpretation.

Primary Sources: Direct Evidence

Primary sources are the raw materials of history. They are first-hand accounts or physical artefacts created during the period under investigation. These sources provide direct evidence of historical reality, reflecting the immediate thoughts, circumstances, and actions of the time.

• Definition: Material originating from the time period being studied. The author or creator was a direct participant or eyewitness.
• Examples relevant to Ghana:
• The actual recording of Ghana’s Independence speech by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1957.
• Official government documents, such as the original 19th-century treaty known as the Bond of 1844.
• Artefacts like traditional Ashanti stools, Kente cloth patterns, or old Ghanaian currency notes (e.g., the 1986 Cedi note).
• Oral testimonies collected directly from elders who witnessed a specific event, like the arrival of electricity in their village.
• Personal diaries, letters, photographs, and original birth certificates.

Secondary Sources: Interpretation and Analysis

Secondary sources are interpretations of history. They are written or produced after the event, drawing upon and analyzing multiple primary sources to construct an argument or narrative. They are one step removed from the original event.

• Definition: Material created by someone who did not personally experience or witness the events described, but who has analysed primary sources.
• Examples relevant to Ghana:
• Your SHS History textbook detailing the causes of the Sagrenti War.
• A biography of Yaa Asantewaa written by a modern academic in 2024.
• A scholarly journal article debating the impact of colonial indirect rule in the Northern Territories.
• A historical documentary produced last year about the West African slave trade.

Examining Authenticity: The Historian’s Lab

Simply classifying a source as primary or secondary is not enough. Historians must subject every piece of evidence to rigorous scrutiny to assess its authenticity and reliability. This process involves internal and external criticism.

The Challenge of Primary Source Authenticity

While primary sources offer direct insight, they are often biased, incomplete, or difficult to interpret without context. Authenticity asks: Is this source what it claims to be? Reliability asks: Can we trust what the source says?

• External Criticism (Authenticity): This involves verifying the source’s origin. Was the letter truly written by the person whose name is on it? Was the Kente cloth actually woven during the colonial era? Historians use techniques like carbon dating, linguistic analysis, and handwriting comparison.
• Internal Criticism (Reliability/Bias): This involves analysing the source’s content. A diary entry from a British colonial governor might describe local Ghanaian leaders negatively. The historian must ask: What was the author’s motive? What audience was he writing for? What might he have deliberately omitted?

The bias inherent in a primary source does not render it useless; rather, understanding the bias becomes part of the historical evidence itself.

Contextualisation and Corroboration

To use any source effectively, we must contextualise it—placing it within the social, political, and cultural setting of its creation. For example, to understand a photograph from the 1948 Accra Riots, we must know the surrounding political tensions and the economic state of the Gold Coast at that moment.

Corroboration is the process of comparing multiple sources to check the facts. If three distinct primary sources—say, a missionary’s letter, an oral tradition, and a government census—all agree on a specific date for a famine, the date is considered highly reliable.

Application: Reading History in Ghanaian Artefacts

Consider the task of analyzing an old Ghana Cedi note. This artefact is a powerful primary source. What history can we extract from it?

We use the 5Ws and 1H (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How) to interrogate the source:

• When? The date of issue tells us the specific economic and political period.
• Whose image? The portraits tell us which national figures were being honoured and promoted during that regime.
• What symbols? If the note features cocoa pods, it confirms the centrality of agriculture to the national economy at the time.

A secondary source, like an economic history textbook, would then use this primary evidence to analyze the broader implications of these policies.

The Necessity of Synthesis

It is a misconception to believe that primary sources are inherently “better” than secondary sources. Both are indispensable for sound historiography.

• Primary sources provide the unique, unmediated facts and feelings of the past.
• Secondary sources provide the necessary structure, context, and analytical framework to make sense of the fragmented primary evidence.

Without secondary sources, we would have millions of isolated documents without connecting interpretations. Without primary sources, the secondary interpretations would be baseless speculation. The historian’s task is the skillful synthesis of these two types of evidence to reconstruct the past with precision and authority.

By mastering the categorization, analysis, and critical examination of historical sources—assessing for bias, determining authenticity, and demanding corroboration—you develop the necessary skills to become proficient interpreters of Ghana’s rich and complex history. This critical approach ensures that the history you write is robust, verifiable, and deeply rooted in credible evidence.

NaCCA ALIGNED