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History isn’t written from one day to the next.  Joseba Agirreazkuenaga has published the work From Basques without History to Basques with History, that talks about how the history of the Basque Country has been patch worked together.  Article by Felix Ibargutxi in El Diario Vasco.  

Félix Ibargutxi/Donostia-San Sebastián. Professor Joseba Agirreazkuenaga at the University of the Basque Country has published the book From Basques without History to Basques with History (Txertoa, 2017, 152 pages), where he shows in an informative way the attempts over the years to write the history of the Basques. 

The publication begins with a scene from 1897.  The Societé d'Ethnographie et d'Arte Populaire had organized a second conference in Donibane Lohizune (San Jean de Luz), in hopes of reflecting on Basque traditions.  One of the presenters, Adrien Plante, mayor of Orthez and member of Spain’s Royal Academy of History, began his talk with a provocative questions.  “Do the Basques have a history perhaps?”  At that time, there was a tendency to think that peoples who hadn’t achieved independence lacked the necessary vitality and were unable to participate in the March of History.  Then, one of the conference organizers, the Mayor of San Jean de Luz, Republican doctor Goyeneche, whispered in his ear that “Basques are like honest women: they lack history.”

On the back cover of the book you can read: “From universities and royal academies in the French and Spanish nation-states, a history of a single sequence has been promoted causing the invisibility of the Basque history. However, since the 17th century Oihenart constructed a historic discourse of Vasconia and the Basques, in contrast to other tales.”

Oihenart (1592-1667) is key. «Faced with myths and legends, he establishes historical criticism» 

The first map that mentions the Basque lands, under the name Wasconia, is in the 11th century

Arnaud Oihenart (1592-1667) is the key piece, according to Agirreazkuenaga.  Born in the capital of Zuberoa, Maule, he studied law ans was elected as the representative of the “third state” or the common people of Zuberoa, against the clergy and nobility.  He had access to the library of the Lord of Agramont, and as such could consult original historic documental resources first hand.  His master work was “'Notitia utriusque vasconiae, tum Ibericae, tum Aquitaniae” the historical news of both Basque countries, the Iberiana and the Aquitaine. “Against the myths and legends that enclosed the tales of the past, Oihenart establishes the historic criticism.  In the “notitia” a leap of conceptual significance is shown, since the Navarrismo slides into Vasconismo, in a way that Vasconia-Euskal Herria becomes the object of history and historiography,” Agirreazkuenaga writes.  Another value of Oihenart would be his rejection of Cantabrism.

Euskal Herria is a name that the Basques use to talk about their territory and the population in their own language.  The first time that it appears written, not one, but three times, is in a work by a noble from Araba, Juan Perez de Lazarraga dated between 1564 and 1567.  Later, in 1571, it also appears in the translation of the New Testament done by Joanes Leizarraga.  Specifically, Perez de Lazaraga wrote the following: «beti çagie laudatu / çegaiti doçun eusquel erria / aynbat bentajaz dotadu» (Always praise you, because you have endowed Euskal Herria with so many advantages.)

Agirreazkuenga gives more value to the quote by Leizarraga: “This work by Leizarraga was printed and had diffusions.  Lazarraga’s manuscripts, however, have recently been published.”

The book also shows the first map from the 11th century, where the Basque territories are mentioned under the name “Wasconia.”  Agirreazkuenaga knows the backstory of the map:  “A Benedictine Abbey from Saint Sever, or Severus, in the locality of the same name in the department of Les Landes, in the 11th century had great possessions from Bordeaux to Iruña-Pamplona that allowed it to become a great cultural center.  There they prepared a work of some 300 pages in parchment to explain the apocalypse in the Gospel according to John.  Among the wonderful drawings there is map of the world singed by Stephanus Garsia and the map stresses the monastery itself and the name of territory with the name of Wasconia.  This work is conserved in the National Library in Paris.”

The Danger of Anachronism  

The Professor believes that we have a strong tendency towards anachronism.  “Anachronism is a very common practice and from these misunderstandings and misconceptions arise.  The idea of the antiquity of the Basques is still very rooted, primitivism, because it could be of value.  Today we refer to the resilience or that the language is ancient, but unfortunately, for now, Euskera continues to be a modern and current language, evolving, like the Basque and Euskera has been an urban language because for some 700 years an important part of the population has lived in urban spaces and the most dense population is on the coast.  The historic thought requires an apprenticeship as any other office,” he said.

And what to do to get young people interested in the history of their country?  “In schools, I think that we should start from personal experience as a way of approaching the immediate past.  We must find points of interest among students as a starting point to surprise them with other questions and issues that finally conclude a systematization.  We all have a past that gravitates in our experience.  So, they will learn to think historically, which is what it is, to perform analysis of complex realities with the variable of time.  The contents will be acquired according to their needs.”

 (Published 02-07-2017 in El Diario Vasco)