I'm writing this to show how a person can study history and why it is personally beneficial to them. Historical knowledge is a form of wealth, like most forms of knowledge, but ultimately the scale that historical knowledge can benefit you is a lot wider than the scale of most other forms of wealth and information. This is because historical knowledge lets you know how the world works, and this allows you to know the next big investment, how to succeed politically, how to conduct yourself to get the results you want, how to solve problems in your community, and since it's a hot topic for nigerians, how to develop a country or community. History also allows you to see into the future unlike anything else. Let me explain.

Step One: Respect for Words

The first step you should take in learning history is to gain a respect for words. You need to develop a mentality that allows you to see that words are a form of property.

Your words have a value. Your words can be worth less than another person's words, and worth more than another's. This also has a monetary translation. For example, did you know that when making deals with companies outside of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu has Wole Soyinka co-sign or give a signature? This is because Wole winning a Nobel Prize made his word extremely valueable. Tinubu also understands that the word of a Nigerian is currently ranked very low in the world and is a debased currency, due to the reputation of scamming and corruption. But Wole has survived this devaluation with his prize and work, and Tinubu, with his money and power, has the intelligence to understand that Wole's word is what will allow his own devalued property to gain value.

This means that credibility is a currency and a property. Like a property, sometimes the properties surrounding your own will determine it's value. If you're trying to sell a property and it's beautiful and well equip, having a known cultist den across the road will make it hard to sell that property.

So understand this

1. Quoting unreliable sources devalues the currency of your word.
2. Quoting reliable sources increases the value of your word
3. Giving false information devalues
4. Giving accurate information values.


but what is false and what is accurate? When speaking about history, always assume that someone will research what you are saying. And assume they will not research it using the same sources or methods that you used. So 'my papa told me' can only work if they ask your papa. If you get your information from somewhere, make sure it's not a place someone will go to verify that will cause you embarrassment. The people you quote and learn from are your intellectual neighbors. When your neighbors are respecting themselves that value of your property increases.

Step Two: Who to trust

History is an empirical study. Meaning that things only matter as long as you can prove them. If you cannot prove something, leave it alone. It may be true or it may be false, but if you can't demonstrate either, you're wasting your time.

Why?

Because history is the instruction manual of the world. Even before marrying it's good to know the history of your spouse. If you are going to marry a girl you want to know her values, her temperament, things she has done in the past, family history etc, because all of this will help you make better decisions.

This doesn't mean there will be rumors. Some people might be jealous of your relationship and tell you XYZ. Some people may be happy that you're finally getting married and try to gloss over the uncomfortable facts they may know about her. Everyone's intention is different

So the ONLY thing you can trust is what you can prove. You can take in information from a wide net of sources but if someone says your girlfriend has a gambling addiction and you decide right then to ignore them and marry her you are running a risk that will only hurt you. If someone says she has a gambling addiction and you leave her right there, you again have run the possibility of doing what you'll regret. Instead, if you hear she had a gambling addiction, investigate. Ask her, look around, search for clues or keep your eyes open for signs. Anything you hear is gossip until there's proof. This is the difference between hypothesis and theory.

IN history when you state a hypothesis, which is an unproven guess you have to say things like 'I think' ' I believe' 'It is possible that' 'My hypothesis is'. So that if the notion is wrong, you don't sink your credibility with it. If the idea is proven wrong, then you as a person are not proven wrong because it was only a hypothesis.

If it is a theory which is something you can prove, you can then say it as a statement. 'Anioma Igbos are Igbos' then you can prove it if someone doubts you because you have evidence. 'Kano has an Emir'. If someone doubts you , you can again prove it. ]

again, don't devalue your property (your word)

Step Three: How to investigate

If you are curious about something in history, there are many ways you can investigate. Just make sure the people you are buying your cement from are really selling you cement. So lets say I want to know whether Igbos are biblical hebrews or from Israel. I can

1. Ask people
2. Weigh the evidence

or do both.

When asking people you run into the problem of that person being wrong. If that person is wrong, it is like buying fake cement. If there is a little bit of truth in what they're saying it is like adding too much sand to the cement mix. The more truth (cement) the stronger the block, and the safer it is to use in building your home. If you build a home on falsehoods (poor cement) when it collapses you're the one that suffers first.

So the next option is weighing evidence. What are forms of evidence in history

Archeology: Ancient times that are uncovered and examined to determine their age. This tells you much of what you need to know about history which cultures came before others, where people come from, what people believed before they were able to right, etc. I know that many of the artifacts (Igbo Ukwu, Uturu-Ugwuele, Lejja-OPi) are several thousands of years older that anything that has ever been found in israel. I know that archeology has proven that Africans came before middle easterners. So my hypothesis (Igbos are jews) is already in trouble, and if I repeat this in educated company I will only devalue myself.
Let me tell you, this is one of the primary reasons why Kanu is having a hard time attracted people who are educated, and people who are educated outside of Nigeria most specifically. And this demographic would have made Biafra a reality within a year if they were interested but they don't want to associate with something that will reduce their personal credibility.

Now take that to the scale of the countries in the world. How can you build an alliance with a group of people that are saying something that is a disproven myth in all countries with educated people. Prehaps these people don't know what they're talking about? Perhaps they're delusional? Are they worth risking money, credibility, diplomatic muscle, time and effort if they're saying things that don't add up?

Archeology also includes written records.

Now on the Israel issue. If we actually know the history of Israel, and had the evidence to support what we know rather that going off children's fables in the bible we will know that .

1. Israel has a population less than Anambra
2. All jews can come to Israel
3. Israel doesn't want 50 million Igbos to have the right of return that allows them to come to Israel as 'jews'
4. Israel does not make alliances based on religion and is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and other radically muslim countries.

Linguistics: Studying language can allow you to see a link between peoples or trends in history. Certain words used for certain items will tell you how that idea or item was understood in the past. This can give you a clue as how what relationships things have with each other.

That being said, linguistics is it's own science. It is not simply finding to words or phrases you think sound similar in two languages then making a conclusion. It is examine the words themselves. If I look at a word like construction i can learn 2 things

1. It's latin, meaning it's from the Roman empire
2. it is a latin sentence meaning 'heep together'

I can then use the use of Construction in English to make a hypothesis
1. Perhaps there was a Roman influence on English people?
2. Perhaps there's a link between Roman building knowledge and modern construction in britian.

When I examine both notions using Archeology, I end up being correct. You will notice I didn't 1. say anything I observed as a fact without examine 3. Go beyond the topic the word is covering.

Again, I am trying to learn about the world so that I can operate in the world. It is important to know that facts so that my decisions have informed and positive consequence. If a muslim asks you if you put pig meat in his stew, he is asking because he would benefit from not eating pig meat as is required in his religion. If he goes around swallowing whatever is given to him with examining, he will accidently violate the laws of his faith.

Geology: Sometimes terrain will tell you a lot about history. The shape of the land, while illnesses are prevalent there, the temperature, closeness to water. All of this effects how history will play out. You can learn a lot about history by looking at the land. For example people will talk about dialect differences in nigerian languages.

I have often heard stories where this clan/dialect descends from this person, this clan/dialect descends from that person etc. 100% of the time this notion is unproven and unprovable. Meanwhile, you if look at the river formations, it will explain the cultural and dialect differences in the area. When a river separates us and we speak the same language, after some time people on one side of the river will sound different and use different words from people on another side of the river.

Language is about use. The people you use your language with are the people you will sound like. If your peers start a slang, you may soon start using it. But someone on the other side of the river will never hear that slang. In 200 years all of the slang they developed and you did not hear and all of the slang you developed and they did not hear will become 'dialects' You will use different words to communicate the the same thing.

If we are physically far from each other then we will speak entirely different languages because the amount of exchange will be low.
Geography can also explain wars, where to find resources, and even methods of governing. People in wide open plans form cities, people in forests form small villages.

Wide open plains like northern nigeria had historic cities because that's how they kept themselves safe. There were no rivers or trees to stop a mass invasion from any direction. It is like being homeless naturally so they built a city put walls around it.

Common Sense: your common sense will help you understand what you're hearing or reading. If it involves aliens and you have never seen and alien, you have no business repeating it as fact. If it involves miracles and you have never seen a miracle, again, leave it alone. If it includes magic and you not seen magic, leave it.

Forget that you heard this one turned into a yam from so and so or you heard this one made lightening hit the ground. If you have not seen a man come down from the sky, you should not be quoting Oduduwa has history. The world of today is the same world and has had the same rules since humans first came into existence. What is not possible today was not possible then.

Your common sense is not what you'll use to come to conclusions, it's what you'll use to examine those conclusions once you're there.

Here are ways you can make money by understanding history

1. Knowing where to find commercial minerals
2. Seeing patterns that repeat themselves and where to invest based on that (When there's a war, the price of X increases, when the price of fuel increases X business starts to boom, when there's an election people buy X, Every december people buy X). Now take those examples and consider what I said above. The most benefit you will get is using real information that you can prove, not what you feel or what so and so said. 3. Knowing which businesses fail and success in certain places and why
4. Knowing the conducive places in the world to go to (
5. Teaching
6. Writing or applying it in creative works
7. knowing how problems are solved when they arise because you know how that problem was solved elsewhere in history. Real money is made by solving problems and getting paid to do it.