The History of Africa

by Molefi Kete Asante

This book provides a wide-ranging history of Africa from earliest prehistory to the present day – using the cultural, social, political, and economic lenses of Africa as instruments to illuminate the ordinary lives of Africans. The result is a fresh survey that includes a wealth of indigenous ideas, African concepts, and traditional outlooks that have escaped the writing of African history in the West. This straightforward, illustrated and factual text allows the reader to access the major developments, personalities and events on the African continent. Written by a world expert in African history, this ground-breaking survey is an indispensable guide.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2007

About the author

Molefi Kete Asante (born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University, where he founded the PhD program in African-American Studies. He is president of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies.

Asante is known for his writings on Afrocentricity, a school of thought that has influenced the fields of sociology, intercultural communication, critical theory, political science, the history of Africa, and social work.He is the author of more than 66 books and the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies.

Reviews

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book. Lots of information about an often misunderstood continent. Would be worthwhile checking it out.

[David Ballinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

If your history classes were anything like mine, you came out of school knowing precious little about Africa. Egypt was a big deal a long time ago, the slave trade was a bad thing that we (America) had thankfully put behind us, and there was this thing called "apartheid" in South Africa. Outside of these topics, Africa was a mysterious place to me. I knew that most of it was jungle outside of the giant desert on the north end of it. The people, I assumed, were not much more technologically advanced than those tribes that live deep in the Amazon and rarely make contact with the modern world.

For many years, this was enough for me. Africa was an ocean away, after all. What happened there in the past or the present affected my life about as much as the goings-on in India or China, whose history I was equally ignorant of. If something important happened there, I'd have learned about it in school, right? Lately, though, I've come to realize that what I know of Africa, just like India, China, and anywhere else in the world that isn't America or Europe, I'd absorbed through the filter of the Western perspective. With this filter in place, the parts of African history that needed to be known (or simply known of) to understand European and American history were cherry-picked out and the rest was discarded. Basically, if an element of African history didn't affect the Western world in some way, it was considered unimportant. Why? Human beings lived in Africa before they lived anywhere else on the planet. There are over 50 countries in Africa. How could a landmass that huge with that many different people and cultures living on it for longer than any other culture has existed not have stories to tell?

With globalization making the world smaller and my own country becoming more multicultural than ever before, I found myself seeking a more well-rounded view of human history. I wanted the whole story, not just the American or European version. Since Africa is literally where it all began, I decided to begin my journey through the world's history there. This book, The History of Africa, seemed like a good place to start, and it was! I couldn't have asked for a better overview/introduction to the continent. From the first kingdoms of Kemet (the actual name of the country that is consistently referred to as "ancient Egypt") and Nubia to the Mali and Wagudu empires of West Africa to the Yoruba and Hausu states to Great Zimbabwe and the Kongo, each of Africa's countries and cultures is given its time in the spotlight. The stories of each civilization are told in a concise, easily digestible way so that even those of us who are completely in the dark can absorb the information painlessly. I found it helpful to keep Google Maps handy since many of the places the author references were truly alien to me. By looking them up as I came across them in the reading, I ended up developing a working knowledge of African geography while learning its history!

I'll admit that I was bored at first, reading this book. The first thirty or so pages are all about Kemet, which I already had plenty of knowledge about. I did learn a few new things about them and their rivals the Nubians, but the book became much more interesting after I got through that section and started learning about the other African empires and peoples. As I made my way through the chapters, another reason that African history isn't really explored in Western history classes became painfully obvious. In the story of Africa, especially in the past five hundred years, Europe and America are invariably the villains. Between the Atlantic slave trade and the colonization and exploitation that followed the Berlin Conference, Africa has suffered greatly at the hands of the West. To say Europe has been unkind to Africa is one of the biggest understatements that can be made. The bottom half of the book ends up being almost entirely dedicated to the oppression of the African people by European colonizers and the battle for independence that followed.

The book is more of an overview of Africa's history than an all-in-one resource on the subject. I recommend it as a place to start if you're as clueless on the subject as I was.

[Elijah Cohen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did the concept of an Afro-centric approach to history. It is difficult for me to look past the Afro-centrist voice of an author from the United States. I understand that he is big into the movement, but I still think it’s more difficult then the author describes to distance yourself from a Western perspective when you grow up in the West. Ore historiography is needed.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

well put together book about African history done by someone from the region so there is an African perspective in the writing.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molefi Kete Asante (Arthur Lee Smith Jr., 14. August 1942 in Valdosta, Georgia) ist ein US-amerikanischer Autor und führender Vertreter des Afrozentristischen Denkens. Mit seinem Buch Afrocentricity prägte er den Begriff des Afrozentrismus und gilt als „Ziehsohn“ des senegalesischen Gelehrten Cheikh Anta Diop. Asantes Werk „The History of Africa“ ist eine beeindruckende intellektuelle Rektifizierung der Geschichtsschreibung. Es zeigt, dass die wahre Größe Afrikas nicht auf den verzerrten Mercator-Karten der Kolonialmächte zu finden ist, sondern in der Tiefe seiner Zivilisationen liegt. Das Buch korrigiert gnadenlos westliche Verzerrungen, indem es die gewöhnlichen Leben der Afrikaner ins Zentrum stellt und eine Fülle indigener Ideen und Konzepte präsentiert, die der westlichen Geschichtsschreibung entgangen sind. Asantes Mission, die „Suche nach ewiger Harmonie“ in die Geschichte Afrikas einzubetten, unterstreicht: Afrika ist historisch so gewaltig, dass es auf der westlichen Landkarte nie vollständig erfasst wird.

The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony
„The History of Africa“ bietet eine umfassende, chronologisch gegliederte Darstellung der Geschichte Afrikas aus einer afrikanischen Perspektive. Das Werk ist in sieben große Epochen unterteilt, die den Kontinent von der Entstehung der Menschheit bis zur Gegenwart führen.
Teil I bis IV: Antike und klassische Zivilisationen
Teil I: The Time of Awakening behandelt Afrikas Rolle bei der Entstehung der Menschheit (Africa and the Origin of Humanity).
Teil II: The Age of Literacy widmet sich den Anfängen der Zivilisation und dem Aufstieg von Kemet/Ägypten (The Rise of Kemet/Egypt), wobei die frühen politischen Strukturen und kulturellen Errungenschaften Afrikas im Fokus stehen.
Teil III: The Moment of Realization beschreibt das Aufkommen der großen Flusskönigreiche (The Emergence of the Great River Kingdoms).
Teil IV: The Age of Construction konzentriert sich auf die Ausbreitung klassischer Reiche und Königreiche sowie auf die Sudanischen Imperien (The Spread of Classical Empires and Kingdoms; The Sudanic Empires). Außerdem werden die „Generatoren“ traditioneller und zeitgenössischer afrikanischer Gesellschaften sowie Geheimgesellschaften und Institutionen behandelt, die diese Gesellschaften prägten.
Teil V bis VII: Chaos, Wiederaufbau und Konsolidierung
Teil V: The Time of Chaos untersucht die dunkle Phase afrikanischer Geschichte, beginnend mit der Ankunft arabischer und europäischer Missionare, Händler und Söldner (Arab and European Missionaries, Merchants, and Mercenaries), und beleuchtet den Widerstand gegen den Sklavenhandel (Resisting European and Arab Slave Traders).
Teil VI: The Age of Reconstruction zeigt, wie Afrika nach dieser Periode des Chaos Wiederbewusstsein erlangte und durch eine Pan-Afrikanische Bewegung die Unabhängigkeit erkämpfte (Africa Regains Consciousness in a Pan-African Explosion).
Teil VII: The Time for Consolidation behandelt die Konsolidierung der Unabhängigkeit (Africa Consolidates Independence) und die Bewegung „Hin zu den Vereinigten Staaten von Afrika ohne Kompromisse“ (Toward a United States of Africa without Compromise), die schließlich zur Gründung der Afrikanischen Union führte.
Das Werk wird durch mehrere Anhänge ergänzt, darunter eine Chronologie der afrikanischen Geschichte, eine Übersicht wichtiger ethnischer Gruppen und bedeutender Sprachkomplexe. Besonderes Gewicht legt Asante darauf, die Geschichte anhand indigener Ideen und des alltäglichen Lebens der Afrikaner zu erzählen, wodurch ein tiefgründiges, authentisches Bild des Kontinents entsteht.

[Bill Perrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I should have awarded this book 4 stars but there are a few too many criticisms niggling at me.
Writing a history of Africa is a massive task. This book of many pages does a reasonable job but not a great job. It has value in presenting quite a lot of information about African resistance to colonialism, and that, i see, as its main strength.
Weaknesses are related to the difficulty of writing a history of such a complex and varied continent. Some countries histories are skimmed over and some long standing issues ignored; for example, Morocco and the Western Sahara conflict is not mentioned. Some imperialist powers are skipped over, glaringly the role of the USA which has been active for many years. One remembers that the USA sent naval gunboats to the “Barbary Coast” hundreds of years ago because the North African disrupted trade; but more glaringly the USA and it role on the World Bank and similar financial institutions have crippled many African countries for decades. (The role of the USA central Africa and the Uranium dug up and used for the atomic bomb program is not mentioned). CIA involvement in African coups and rebellions is only touch upon.
Perhaps the book should be rewritten buy a team form somewhere else that the USA.

[Jeanette Petersson Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good informative book. Such books are so necessary to undo the prevailing myths about a"dark" continent. Nice to read a history book from the standpoint of the people in African, especially the resistance to the invasions just like in Poland and France in WWII!

Much more maps should have been included in the 2007 version which I read! I had to google and grab an atlas. But it was worth the read.

[Dg Noc · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book, the best book I read this year