BY CHARLES KUMOLU

IN volume 1 of the late George Santayana’s book, The Life of Reason, the late American philosopher pointedly observed that: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Indeed, this excerpt from the 1905 book specifically highlighted the imperativeness of being in touch with societal history, which has become a no issue in Nigeria-no thanks to the deliberate removal of the subject from school curriculum.

With some developmental challenges in the country being traced to the abandonment of Nigeria’s past, it was not surprising that many have embarked on self and group advocacies for the reintroduction of history.

Gansallo

One of such people is the founder of History, Culture and Heritage Institute of Nigeria, HCHIN, Mr. Mathew Gansalo.

The architect is passionate about history to the extent that he could simply be said to personify and lives history.

These were discovered during an encounter with Saturday Vanguard in Lagos at HCHIN.

He narrated the vision and activities of the institute thus: “It is our collective responsibility to encourage our youths to know the history of their nation and beyond. This responsibility has also been boldly shouldered by the History, Culture and Heritage Institute of Nigeria.

“HCHIN is a voluntary non-governmental body that networks and brings together Historians and Intellectuals in the various fields of History in order to vigorously campaign for the return of our own history back to the classrooms in all public and private schools in Nigeria.

“HCHIN strives to return History back to the classroom through promoting, mentoring and teaching three different age grades of students in schools political, cultural and indigenous histories of Nigeria. These categories are primary school pupils, junior secondary school students, and senior secondary school students.

“The benefits of this advocacy and training are numerous as the pupils and students stand to gain a lot if they participate in our well strategically structured programme. The gains are as follows; it will reawaken their identity awareness; it will help them to understand people and societies; it will improve their decision making and judgment; it will showcase to them, models of good and responsible citizenship; it will teach them how history makes us learn from the mistakes of others, it will help them understand change societal and cultural development; it will reveal to them the importance of history in their own growth

“At the end of our structured programme, the pupils and students would have developed the skills and abilities needed in assessing available historical evidence, assessing conflicting interpretations and must have gained necessary experience in assessing past examples of change which will help then in all their subjects.”

Gansallo is a Fine Artist, an Architect Designer, who specialises in Museum Architecture. The Museologist has worked with some of the world’s most renowned learning institutions and educational organisations.

He was a Senior Management Fellow at Tate Britain and Modern London and Education and Interpretation Consultant/Curator National and International Programmes at Tate Britain and Modern London. He has curated numerous exhibitions including, Black Dance in Britain, Moments, Sankofa Court, Celebration and Contradiction among others.