African History Book Suggestions

Cafe Society
1

Hi all,

What I’m looking for is a good read looking at the pre-colonial history of Africa.

Maybe a survey style text, covering Mali, Great Zimbabwe, the Massai, Nubia, and whatever else. If you know of a really good book that only covers a small section, or just 1 group, feel free to recommend it - maybe this will take a larger catalogue, although I’m not going for a Ph.D. here and I don’t want to have to dig through more 5 or 6 before feeling like I’ve got an idea of what was going on over there.

I bought “Into Africa: A Journey through Ancient Empires” and I found it to be just horrendous. So I’m seeking help.

Random list of some qualities that I would like to see:

Unbiased
Lots of maps
Well organized
Minimal focus on historiography - but a little would be OK
No focus on modern slavery (it’s just not what I’m interested in reading about)

Thoughts?

2

Two excellent exploration books: Blue Nile and White Nile, by Alan Moorehead

Africa in History, by Basil Davidson

Segu, (an historical novel) by Maryse Conde

3

Africa in History looks a like a great start - thanks!

ETA: Do you know if it has a good bibliograhpy?

While the others look like very good reads (and I’ve been meaning to read Moorehead for a long time now), they’re not quite what I’m after - I’d like something a little more detached.

Thanks a bunch for the recommendations.

Anyone else have anything?

Note: I’m not after anything focusing on Egypt, as I’ve read a pretty good amouint on the subject.

Thanks.

4

The Strong Brown God did for the history of the Niger what Moorehead did for the Nile.

5

I’m also interested in this topic. I have a feeling that my ignorance of african history is so abysmal that no one book is going to bridge it, but I’ll second the request.

6

It has a chapter at the end called “Brief Guide to Further Reading”, which doesn’t look so brief. Lots of references in there.

7

My wife came up with a couple from her collection. One is supposed to be more directed at children, but she says it’s excellent: “The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay”, by Patricia and Fredrick McKissack.

Another small book in her collection is “The Middle Age of African History”, by Roland Oliver. On the back cover, there is a list of other books:

The Dawn of African History, same author
Africa in Time Perspective, Daniel McCall
An Introduction to the History of Central Africa, A.J. Wills
History of East Africa, edited by Roland Oliver
The Oxford History of South Africa, Vol I (to 1870), Monica wilson
African Nationalism, Ndabaningi Sithole
Africa from Early Times to 1800, P.J.M. McEwan
Nineteenth Century Africa, McEwan

8

Awsome, Chefguy - much appreciated.

And I know what you mean Malthus - but I guess we need to start soemwhere.

Maybe do some posting as we pick books and start reading?

9

Coincidentally, Davidson died this week - Guardian obit.