DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/09 May) — Perhaps, we are now in a tilting point in the manner that Philippine History is being taught to the Filipino youth! For so long since the birth of the Philippine Republic, just over a century ago, Philippine History textbooks used in both public and private schools throughout the country by teachers teaching History were mainly those written from a Manila- or Luzon-centric perspective.
This was unavoidable, as most historical narratives that found their way into the history books were mainly about historical events unfolding in and around, or adjacent to the metropolitan capital of the Republic, namely Manila. Even as some of these were written by non-Filipinos, they privileged events in the North.[]
This was ironic, since there were already writings done by many foreign scholars as to the historical events unfolding in Mindanao. For example, there is a compilation of documentary sources that the Ateneo de Davao University History Department titled REVISITING DOCUMENTARY SOURCES IN MINDANAO MUSLIM HISTORY: FROM THE ADVENT OF ISLAM TO THE 1800s that will soon be published. In this compilation are articles written (or translated from primary sources) by Najeeb M. Saleeby, John Leyden, Cesar Majul and Jose Arcilla SJ. There is also the different volumes under Emma Helen Blair and James Roberstson’s THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 1493-1898.
In the aftermath of the Philippine Revolution against Spain, there was a hunger for historical materials that could be taught in the schools especially after Independence in 1946. The Rizal course – where his novels were required reading – became canonical books to be read. But there were very few Filipinos with greater scholarship in the field of history who arose in the post-independence period who could do research and write a truly comprehensive Philippine history.
It seemed inevitable that the first Filipino historians who began to assert their right to interpreting our own history also did so from the perspective of Manila and the North. Thus Gregorio Zaide’s books – which were mainly the main textbooks that we of the post-war generation used in our classrooms – were the main sources of historical narratives. Eventually his interpretation of Philippine history was challenged by the likes of Teodoro Agoncillo and Renato Constantino. Still these authors were writing from the perspective of Manila and Luzon. There were also other historians who wrote a number of historical accounts e.g. Fr. Horacio dela Costa SJ but these books were not available to teachers of basic education, only to those who were doing college or post-graduate history studies in select schools in urban centers.
A few others, e.g. Dr. Samuel Tan and Dr. Peter Gowing did their best to bring to the country’s attention the events in Mindanao-Sulu but such efforts did not reach popular acceptance.
Then things radically changed in the last fifty years, especially since the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos. A new nationalist fervor – echoing the sentiments of the same nationalist vision of the 1860s to early 1900s – arose when a new generation of students hungered for a more comprehensive Philippine history, especially that which help to analyze the root causes of our society’s massive poverty, inequality and oppression of marginalized sectors.
Thus arose a new scholarship in the field of History that was also paralleled in the other fields of social sciences, especially sociology, anthropology and psychology. The new generation of scholars who were writing their theses and dissertations in local and foreign universities began to explore more and more national/regional/local realities as new post-colonial theoretical frameworks were made available to them. There were also non-university based research agencies and NGOs who entered into this realm and conducted research projects that would supplement those produced in the academic circles.
Before the end of the Marcos’ dictatorial regime and the rise of People Power in 1986, more and more literature were available. Of great interest were those written about Mindanao by Filipinos all over the country. And included in this list was a growing number of Mindanao-born historians.[]