Africa, vol.1: African History Before 1885

by Toyin Falola

"Africa: Volume 1 begins a series of books which adopt a new perspective on African history and culture, surveying the wide array of societies and states that have existed on the African continent and introducing readers to the diversity of African experiences and cultural expressions. Toyin Falola has brought together African studies professors from a variety of schools and settings. Writing from their individual areas of expertise, these authors work together to break general stereotypes about Africa, focusing instead on the substantive issues of the African past from an African perspective. The texts are richly illustrated and include maps and timelines to make cultural and historical movements clearer, and suggestions for further reading will help readers broaden their own particular interests. Africa provides new perspectives that challenge the accepted ways of studying Africa, flexibility for instructors to structure courses, and encouragement for readers who are eager to learn about the diversity of the African experience.
Volume 1, African History Before 1885, introduces students to the various precolonial histories of Africa. Instead of generalizing about the continent, the chapters reconstruct the histories of many different societies in various historical periods."

Genres: Africa, History, Nonfiction

468 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Toyin Omoyeni Falola is a Nigerian historian and professor of African Studies. He is currently the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. Falola earned his B.A. and Ph.D. (1981) in History at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. Falola is author and editor of more than one hundred books, and he is the general editor of the Cambria African Studies Series (Cambria Press), Falola served as the president of the African Studies Association in 2014 and 2015.