Bring Them in From the Fields: Re-appraising the Historiography of Documenting Burial Monuments and Artefacts of Catholics

Abstract

This essay addresses a historiographical problem of documentation. African Historiography has long played a second fiddle just like the continent itself in the global village. Its documentations and monuments are consistently not often taken into contention. There are either no documents to support historical facts or the documents are riddled with inaccuracies that give room to accusations of fake and forgery. This essay focuses on a small question of this larger problem of documentation. It raises the question of documentation of burial monuments of Catholic priests, religious and catechists often laid to rest in non-traditional burial places for various reasons. These burial monuments (graves) are not often well documented in retrievable archives or records. Consequently, the buried record history but are of little value to evidentiary history in a discipline that thrives on verifiable documentation. They are also of little value to the Catholic Church in the process of canonisation. The essay, therefore, pleads for a better documentation of these monuments, as they would not only aid history writing but also ensure accurate historical documentation.