UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. I, Abridged Edition: Methodology and African Prehistory

UNESCO General History of Africa #1

by Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Editor)

"Volume I" of this acclaimed series is now available in an abridged paperback edition. The result of years of work by scholars from all over the world, "The UNESCO General History of Africa" reflects how the different peoples of Africa view their civilizations and shows the historical relationships between the various parts of the continent. Historical connections with other continents demonstrate Africa's contribution to the development of human civilization. Each volume is lavishly illustrated and contains a comprehensive bibliography.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, Academic

349 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Joseph Ki-Zerbo was a Burkinabé historian, politician and writer.

Reviews

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the reading audience seeking thorough proven untainted facts provided by some of the world's greatest Dr's and Phd's from African centered thought. This book will give you a solid foundation to begin your study and or understand on the subject matter. Loaded with references and majority of the contributors in this body of work are also author's.

[JRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Africa has a history, and this history consists of the evolving life of the continent as a whole and its indigenous inhabitants more specifically. This first volume of UNESCO's 8-Volume General History of Africa discusses the methodology of the project, as well as its insights into Africa's regional pre-history. Well worth the read.

[Marc Lamot]

I read the first and the second volume. Very interesting, but very variable level, because of the long list of authors. Correction on the colonialists view.

[Noorali Habib · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that is largely dated having been published in 1981 and a lot of research is from earlier. Yet I needed a baseline on the nature of archaeological find. Skimmed through. Extremely valuable in that the top experts are here, scores of them. African archaeology has a long road ahead. The continent is vast and varied. Not an easy field but this book is required reading

[Samuele Martinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice read. Might be too heavy for the casual reader and for this I think it is why a summarized version of the book with half the page number has been published as well.

I’ll start by saying that a second edition of this book would’ve been nice as now more than 40 years have passed since the publication and plenty of the writing was done based on even older researches (it is not uncommon the various author saying that they could not talk about a topic because current research was conducted in that moment on it).

The book is divided in two sections. The first describes the methodology that is undertaken for the writing of all the volumes, and can be quite interesting. The second part focuses on the African “prehistory” (I think the world should begin to stop using this term as it is human history here being told).
Depending on the interests of the reader some sections might be more or less interesting. I often found myself super hyped about what I was reading in some parts and slightly bored in some others.

This was a really good base for start reading about African history, and now I’m left waiting to read more about it!

[Ronaldo Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma longa introdução, mas imagino que necessária para o resto da série.

[Samples2cool · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great foundation of Africa’s beginning. A hefty read but so worth it!

[Emilio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente livro

[LUGGYA WASSWA]

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