The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages

by François-Xavier Fauvelle, Troy Tice (Translator)

A leading historian reconstructs the forgotten history of medieval Africa

From the birth of Islam in the seventh century to the voyages of European exploration in the fifteenth, Africa was at the center of a vibrant exchange of goods and ideas. It was an African golden age in which places like Ghana, Nubia, and Zimbabwe became the crossroads of civilizations, and where African royals, thinkers, and artists played celebrated roles in the globalized world of the Middle Ages. The Golden Rhinoceros brings this unsung era marvelously to life, taking readers from the Sahara and the Nile River Valley to the Ethiopian highlands and southern Africa.

Drawing on fragmented written sources as well as his many years of experience as an archaeologist, François-Xavier Fauvelle painstakingly reconstructs an African past that is too often denied its place in history--but no longer. He looks at ruined cities found in the mangrove, exquisite pieces of art, rare artifacts like the golden rhinoceros of Mapungubwe, ancient maps, and accounts left by geographers and travelers--remarkable discoveries that shed critical light on political and architectural achievements, trade, religious beliefs, diplomatic episodes, and individual lives.

A book that finally recognizes Africa's important role in the Middle Ages, The Golden Rhinoceros also provides a window into the historian's craft. Fauvelle carefully pieces together the written and archaeological evidence to tell an unforgettable story that is at once sensitive to Africa's rich social diversity and alert to the trajectories that connected Africa with the wider Muslim and Christian worlds.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Medieval, Audiobook, Medieval History, France

280 pages, Hardcover

First published February 7, 2013

Reviews

[Adam McPhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirty-odd essays--more like vignettes, really--about Africa in the middle ages, a time and place I knew little about and which, it seems, is also true for the scholars who study it.

Tons of wild stories, like how Vasco da Gama's expedition and the Muslim and Hindus they met along the way all seemed to conflate Christians and Hindus, by coincidence they were never in the company of anyone who'd met both a Hindu and a Christian. All the stuff about Africa's mysterious gold mines and the Arab trade routes was fascinating. Like, you expect tumulus mounds to shrink and disappear when a land converts to Islam, and they do, but what's crazy is that the mounds actually grew in size in the years just prior to being connected to trade routes. Was it a reactionary turn against the new? Or the result of a sudden influx of wealth rippling out from the Arab traders? We don't know! And that Ethiopian church carved out rock? Wild! So cool.

Short bibliographical sketches at the end of chapters beats interrupting the scroll of a book with footnotes or endnotes. Wish more non-fiction would discover this approach for themselves.

[Ina Cawl · Rating 5 out of 5]

i always asked myself if there was a time where my Black people interacted and traded with the outside world without being considered commodity and sold as slaves
this short book has answered it in short

[A.E. Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The historian’s bias was fairly obvious throughout the text.

I had high hopes, looking forward to studying this subject more in-depth. The hopscotching through time and place approach might work for some, but for me felt disjointed, with no framework for hanging the facts being listed so that they could be retrieved and made use of later.

[Jacopo Quercia · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Golden Rhinoceros' is a fascinating approach to a subject that should fill entire archives but, for reasons convincingly explained by its author, can be codified within a single volume. François-Xavier Fauvelle accomplishes this Herculean task in this brief but thorough work, and the result in an excellent starting-point for research into Africa from the spread of Islam to Vasco da Gama's voyage to India. Any student or teacher in these fields should own this book.

'The Golden Rhinoceros' is unlike most scholarly works you'll read. With its short chapters—almost each under 10 pages—and occasionally full-page illustrations, I found the book surprisingly similar to some of the hardcover histories I used to read in grade school. This is not a criticism of Fauvelle's research, which is exhaustive, but merely a description of the book's layout. Each chapter also contains a detailed bibliography with helpful notes to aid researchers. Proficiency in French and Arabic is clearly necessary to utilize the full potential these books have to offer, but such prerequisites are common in African studies and should not detract from this book's usefulness, which is extensive.

Overall, this book is excellent. A captivating introduction to the African Middle Ages written in a way accessible for any audience. 4.75 stars.

[Justin Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

I understand why someone might not like this book. It's less than 250 pages long, and has 34 discrete chapters. So, you don't get a whole lot of depth on anything, and you could easily find that frustrating.

If, on the other hand, you find your own ignorance of African history frustrating (as I do), and also find the astonishing lack of good writing about pre-colonial African history frustrating, this is a charming place to start. A very reviewer wrote that 'maps would have helped.' There are maps following page 118.

In short, it's a bit like those 'History of X in 100 objects' books, but with more scholarly chops, less fancy design, and a far more neglected subject. It's a higher-brow version of Henry Louis Gates' PBS series (which is solid!) And, best of all, it encourages one to search out more knowledge.

[Kist · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid collection of essays with good information that unfortunately highlights how little we know (or can confirm) about the African Middle Ages.

[Carolien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Set out in a short chapters, the author introduces us to a number of sources describing Africa in the period 800-1400 CE. There are some really interesting parts, but overall the structure is very fragmented. If nothing, the book gives a very good idea of the diversity of African societies during this period and highlights how little we actually know.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay.

[Marian Bornemann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leider rech schwierig sowohl inhaltlich, geographisch als auch chronologisch zu folgen. Zugegeben auch sehr ambitioniert einen gesamten Kontinent und mehrere Jahrhunderte in knapp 300 Seiten zu bannen. Dennoch sehr interessante Inhalte, die zur tieferen Auseinandersetzung einladen.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool + cute book about medieval Africa. the book is quite fragmented and only gives hints of much of the subject matter partially because it's not intended as a grand overview, but also because most of the written sources being drawn upon are fragmentary and mostly foreign to the actual places being discussed, so you get a lot of accounts of arab merchants and so on. what you do get though is fascinating - glimpses of international trade networks(chinese and indian goods in subsaharan archaeological sites for instance) and highly developed and sophisticated polities across many areas of the continent, even as far south as zimbabwe.

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη · Rating 5 out of 5]

Δοκίμια για την πραγματική ιστορία της Αφρικής. Ασχολείται με πώς σχεδόν όλη η "Μεσαιωνική" ιστορία της Αφρικής είναι γνωστή μέσα από το πρίσμα των αποικιοκρατών ή των Μουσουλμάνων ταξιδιωτών, όπως ο Ιμπν Μπατούτα. Αλλά στην πραγματικότητα μιλάει για πράγματα που πραγματικά δεν τα 'χα ξανακούσει ποτέ, όπως τι θα πει ζιμπάμπουε ή το ότι υπάρχουν "ναυάγια" καραβανιών στην έρημο. Γραμμένο σε μικρά κεφάλαια, με τρόπο που παλαντζάρει μεταξύ δημοσιογραφίας και επιστημονικού κειμένου, με κέρδισε τόσο πριν όσο και μετά την ανάγνωσή του. Η βιβλιογραφία του είναι τόσο εκτενής που δεν υπάρχει η παραμικρή πιθανότητα να την εξαντλήσει κανείς...

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely delightful!

On the one hand, this book was a fascinating set of glimpses at the medieval history of Africa from approximately the Islamic conquests of the seventh century to the arrival of Portugese explorers in the fifteenth. These bite sized essays don't claim to tell you everything there is to know about Berber North Africa; the cross-Saharan trade in salt, gold, and slaves; the Christian kingdoms of Nubia and Ethiopia; the Islamic Sahelian empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, and others. But, they do offer fleeting and vivid glimpses which, being layered on top of each other like a patchwork made out of travellers' tales, archaeological fragments, and scholarly conjecture, gradually form a larger picture.

The effect is strangely, beautifully literary for such an academic book. Partway through I finally put my finger upon what, precisely, THE GOLDEN RHINOCEROS reminded me of: Jorge Luis Borges' LABYRINTHS. I see you looking at me funny: what could a volume of short speculative fiction by a South American magical realist author possibly have in common with an academic history text? But viewed as literary works, the two are closely akin. Both are short, pithy, vivid snatches of much larger stories, originally written with erudite flair in Romance languages, each of them the most fleeting glimpse of a long-vanished, half-imaginary world of often breathtaking sophistication and splendour.

As such, THE GOLDEN RHINOCEROS is one of those rare works: an academic-level literary text with serious literary appeal. As of May 2023, it's still free with your Audible subscription. It's short and fascinating and I thoroughly recommend it.

[JRT · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books seeks to situate African civilizations within the broader global history of the “Middle Ages.” It discusses the societies of various regions of Africa from the 8th Century through the 15th Century, focusing on the commonalities these societies shared with regard to their autonomous interactions with the outside world.

While this is a worthy endeavor, it was poorly executed. My biggest issue with this book is that it falls into the trap of other accounts of African history in that it tries to cover so much territory that it fails to do justice to the societies it covers. Similarly—and perhaps more importantly—the book tells “African history” through the lens of foreign, non-African people, which automatically leads to incomplete depictions. Accordingly, the biggest limitation of this book is its lack of depth, particularly as it pertains to information on the lives of Indigenous Africans (and even African royalty). Instead, the book focuses heavily on the influence of foreign imports such as Islam and Christianity, and tells stories from the point of view of non-Africans.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a little like trying to make a meal out of supermarket samples. I get that this is a short-attention-span world, but the history snippets weren't all that engaging and only glossed over some really interesting subjects. On the plus side, it's fairly well-sourced, so you can dive deeper into the original sources if you want.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fauvelle's book is a look at Africa in the Middle Ages through short 2-3 page pieces about particular places, people or kingdoms. Sadly, the book doesn't offer a lot of explanation for those unfamiliar with African history and too often is written with a senior student in African history in mind. A map showing the places and people discussed would have helped.

[Leonor Borges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um assunto sobre o qual nada sabia, num livro escrito em 34 pequenas narrativas ( não mais de 10 páginas cada) percorrendo vestigios arqueológicos, monumentos e documentos como ponto de partida para um ensaio sobre a história do continente africano,em toda a sua diversidade, nesta época.
Muito bem escrito, muito bem escolhidas as informações sobre mais leituras no fim de cada capítulo.
A descoberta de povos, formas de organização, religiosidade, costumes e, sobretudo, os contactos comerciais e respectivas rotas, com uma interligação entre africanos, árabes, persas ou até chineses traz à luz uma história muito interessante (e muito mal divulgada).
Fica a saber a pouco, melhor dito, quero ler mais sobre o assunto.
O capítulo final sobre a passagem da armada de Vasco da Gama pela costa oriental africana enuncia já o futuro aproveitamento feito por europeus deste continente, pese embora a prė existência de um comércio e rotas de escravos.
A ler!

[Judy Ugonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in awe of this book. Taking pieces of written and material evidence, Fauvelle paints a tantalising picture of medieval Africa, demonstrating that there was a rich and fascinating social and commercial life, in all parts of Africa with connections to many parts of the world including China, long before Vasco da Gama's "miserable first adventure" soon to be "regilded with all the color of an epic saga"! Beautifully written (and well translated into English), each chapter is a short complete story and so the book is easily picked up and put down - you don't have to swallow it in one gulp, though you might want to!

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super pleased with this gem - not a comprehensive narrative, doesn’t claim to be THE history, but rather “histories.” The author takes a kind of stained glass fragment approach to the little shreds of documentary evidence that are available, and the composite that comes together is fascinating.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine. It was fine.

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 2 out of 5]

En serie anekdoter och föremålsbeskrivningar som blir synekdoter för den historia som inte finns nedskriven om Afrika söder om Sahara. Boken tar huvudsakligen avstamp i de få arkeologiska lämningar och samtida källor som finns, och blir av naturen därför väldigt hoppig, men den är inte dålig för vad den är. Däremot tillför inte boken så mycket, utan stammanställer mest. En någorlunda historiskt bildad läsare kan antas känna till det mesta genom arabisk historia eller västerländsk handelshistoria.

[Yves Gounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

On parle peu de l’Afrique précoloniale. Les écoles historiques, notamment est-européennes, qui se sont penchées sur elle au lendemain de l’indépendance, ont disparu. Raison de plus pour saluer à sa juste valeur l’ouvrage de l’historien et archéologue François-Xavier Fauvelle-Aymar luxueusement illustré par une riche iconographie. Il relève le défi de rendre accessible aux non-spécialistes un matériau savant, principal projet de l’ouvrage : des comptes rendus de fouilles en Éthiopie, la stratigraphie d’un site swahili, l’épigraphie d’une stèle chinoise, l’analyse d’une mosaïque nubienne, d’un atlas marocain…
On sait peu de choses du Moyen Âge africain, une période que l’auteur intercale entre le VIIIe siècle, où l’Afrique se connecte à l’islam, et le XVe siècle, où elle est « découverte » par les Portugais. L’historien Raymond Mauny parlait de « siècles obscurs » tant les sources manquent à son sujet. Évoquant les trésors de Debre Damo, un monastère situé dans le nord de l’Éthiopie, Fauvelle-Aymar reconnaît avec une belle humilité : « Nous sommes condamnés à ressasser les maigres observations qui nous sont parvenues, pièces éparses et incomplètes d’un puzzle dont nous ne savons pas du reste de quoi il consiste. »
Même si l’Afrique n’ignorait pas l’écriture, la production d’archives ne s’y généralise que tardivement. L’historien doit donc utiliser d’autres sources : les sources orales porteuses d’une tradition millénaire, les sources archéologiques, qui n’ont hélas guère résisté dans les zones humides de l’Équateur – ce qui explique que la carte des lieux les plus connus décrit un vaste croissant qui, de la Mauritanie à la côte swahilie, en passant par le Sahara et l’Éthiopie, ignore largement l’Afrique de la forêt.
La maigreur des sources ne laisse au savant d’autres solutions que de multiplier les hypothèses. Dans l’Afrique du Moyen Âge, la recherche s’apparente souvent à une enquête policière dont certains mystères ne sont pas encore élucidés. Le constat d’une « histoire incomplète, consentante aux découvertes encore à faire et aux transformations de sens » peut parfois laisser passer un sentiment de frustration. Ainsi, on n’a toujours pas localisé la capitale du Ghâna, ce royaume sahélien situé aux frontières de la Mauritanie et du Mali – dont le nom fut emprunté par la Gold Coast en 1958. On ignore si le petit rhinocéros d’or retrouvé sur les bords du Limpopo, à la frontière de l’actuelle Afrique du Sud et du Zimbabwe, a été importé d’Asie (il ne possède qu’une seule corne) ou fabriqué sur place.
La rareté des sources internes oblige à privilégier les sources externes. Il s’agit beaucoup moins de sources européennes – l’ouvrage n’en cite quasiment aucune – que de sources arabes, voire chinoises. Et c’est là l’enseignement principal de ce livre : c’est grâce au « pouvoir d’interconnexion du monde islamique » que l’Afrique est entrée de plain-pied dans la mondialisation, exportant de l’or et des esclaves, important du sel et des étoffes, de l’Europe jusqu’à la Chine. La prépondérance de ces sources arabes conduit aussi hélas à une distorsion : l’Afrique médiévale décrite par Fauvelle-Aymar est pour l’essentiel une Afrique vue par les yeux des voyageurs arabes.
L’auteur a l’humilité de reconnaître le caractère fragmentaire de sa documentation. À la « grande fresque narrative » brossant sur près d’un millénaire le récit fantasmé d’une Histoire du Moyen Âge africain, il a l’humilité de préférer le « vitrail » kaléidoscopique constitué de trente-quatre Histoires (au pluriel) du Moyen Âge africain. Ces trente-quatre courts récits forment un tableau impressionniste d’un continent connecté au reste du monde par le commerce, aux antipodes de l’image caricaturale d’une Afrique « éternelle », de l’Afrique des « tribus », de l’Afrique « miroir des origines », et qui n’a pas attendu que l’Europe le découvre pour entrer dans l’Histoire.

[Joshua Van Dereck · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Golden Rhinoceros is a pretty disappointing book. Fauvelle sets out to share his understanding of medieval Africa by explaining that historiography struggles terribly to shed light on medieval Africa. So... rather than writing a book about the subject, Fauvelle has cobbled together a collection of essays about stray bits of data that don't really paint any sort of picture of medieval Africa. The Golden Rhinoceros is filled with tantalizing anecdotes to thrill the imagination—hints and flickers of history—but none of it really adds up into a political, social, or military history of anything. The books jumps through the centuries and buzzes all over the continent of Africa without painting any satisfying portrait of anything. So... it feels like reading the Guiness Book of Records or an Uncle John's Bathroom Reader—it's lots of interesting little footnotes that, taken in gestalt, are vaguely mind expanding—but the whole is less than the sum of the parts. I suppose this is the best that can be done for Medieval Africa, sans better sources, and it is decidedly better than nothing. But the book reads as a very start and stop mess that will probably leave but a fleeting impression on the minds of most readers.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.75; RTC.)

Each very short chapter of Fauvelle’s book takes an archaeological site, artifact, or ancient text as its focus. From these items, he creates what a Literary Review critic called “historical pointillism”, opening tiny windows onto medieval African international relations, piecing together tantalizing stories: the Jewish merchant who impregnated his Indian maid and abandoned her in Somaliland; the Sultan of Mali whose lavish tipping while on hajj crashed the Cairene gold market for thirty years. But Fauvelle is not a storyteller, and frequently stops writing just as these stories begin to pique interest. The Golden Rhinoceros is a great introduction to other work, but sometimes frustrates in and of itself.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting read, since my knowledge of African history in this period is limited. I had hoped it would provide some good readings I could assign to students, but it manages to be both light in detail and to require a fair bit of background knowledge to follow each chapter, so I think my students would just find it frustrating. There were so many fascinating stories in the book, it’s a shame they aren’t contextualized better.

[Virginprune · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very "bitty" experience, although the underlying subject matter is fascinating, and went a long way to redeem any failings of the book (or its reader). In many ways, this was a lovely read - entertaining but flawed.
Firstly, this is text which is shattered - I'm reading a German translation of a book which a French academic has pulled together from a ream of diverse (and imperfect) sources, from languages spanning European, Middle Eastern and (some) African antiquity. So some value got lost at my end, no doubt, but also there was plenty of room for chaos and mis (or re-) interpretation upstream, and across the years.
The division into 34 short chapters has the merit of avoiding long, rambling texts - but then the scantiness of the original infomation doesn't really make this a risk.
In terms of content, many fascinating aspects of Africa, at a point in time where it was increasingly becoming known to the outside (or at least, the literate outside) are explored, often with a wry, sardonic touch, and one can only feel very hungry to learn more. There is more information out there, of course - as demonstrated by the copious notes and references - and, although the book is also handsomely supplied with maps and pictures, I would have wished for more (both text and illustration.)
The biggest difficulty I have with the book is that I can't quite work out what the point is. I sense some sort of a theme linking the chapters (trade in the Middle Ages?), but where connections arise, they are simply noted. There is not really any driving narrative. Whole areas of influence on the "current" focus (earlier interactions with Mediterranean empires, for example) are left blank. So many threads were left dangling, so much room was left for discussion or analysis (sometimes sharp, witty and informative, but frequently simply not there). So this feels more like a curation of selected findings around a theme, than a work of purpose and inspiration. Call me unsubtle if you like, but I felt I was missing "the point". And the context.
And, crucially, so little from "Black" Africa. You can say all you like about the lack of written records, but I can't believe it would be impossible to provide deeper and broader context across the continent which is the subject of this book.

[Whitlaw Tanyanyiwa Mugwiji · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book takes one on a journey, haphazardly through time, across the width and breadth of Africa. From the Sahara and the Nile River Valley to the Ethiopian highlands, right down to the valleys and plateaus of southern Africa. The author reconstructed the ancient past kingdoms by combining the many fragmented written ancient sources and his own findings from re-examining the existing archaeological evidence.

From the evidence presented in the book it is apparent that Africa was deliberately written out of history by people with a clear nefarious agenda. The ancient; Europeans, Moslems, Chinese and the Europeans from Europe´s dark ages who came to trade with Africa´s kingdoms had nothing but positive things to say about our; houses, villages. Cities, laws and justice. It is most unfortunate that many Africans today have bought into the 18th and 19th century European racist propaganda that seeks to suggest that Africans were barbaric and uncivilised and therefore contributed nothing to civilisation.

Our post-colonial education does not help the matter either. As part of my ordinary level education in Zimbabwe, I studied a bit of South African history as required by the History syllabus. I learned more about Jan van Riebeek than I learned about Mapungubwe´s rulers. The book only discusses about the golden rhino and other artefacts that were discovered at one burial site in the kingdom of Mapungubwe. Even though the kingdom was darted with disused goldmines, the Europeans could not believe that the artefact was produced by the indigenous people of the area. They were too unsophisticated and uncivilised to embark on such higher forms of art.

Although I have enjoyed and learned a lot from the book, I strongly feel the book concentrated more on breadth than on depth. As a result, it only managed to scratch the surface for the most part. I particularly liked the ancient written sources that were quoted throughout the book. Although they do not give the complete picture of the past, they give a glimpse of how other people saw us. How I wish we all could view our ancestors with these fresh eyes.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down
On the whole and what kept me reading was that this a book about a period of history that is rarely explored, partially because - as the author mentioned - the is a lack of more traditional historical sources like writings about the era. The book at least seemed well researched and provided very clear source lists with "annotations". 

I did have a couple of qualms with some of things about the book in general though.

First, because of the limited "concrete" (from a Western sense) historical information available, at times the author finds it narratively neccesary to imagine the past. At some of these times author examines his biases and makes them clear. At others, he doesn't and it is hard to distinguish what is reasonable historical conjecture and what is speculation filtered through a euro/white/male centric point of view.

Next, the author often uses the terms "Black" and "White". However, at no point in the book does he define what these terms meant and implied within the time period discussed. The modern usage and meaning of these words is socially and historically constructed and I think that not examining the potential meanings of these words over time or the tacit assumption that these words had the same meaning as they do now in the time period discussed is limiting.

Finally, and this I cannot point to in any passage but was something I just got the sense of, at many points it felt like the author was more interested in the archeology of the objects he studied for the sake of the archeology and not because he wanted to truly understand or appreciate the people or the cultures they came from. Of course this is not a prerequisite to a history book at all, but I found something was lost in this very objective and detached point of view. 

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is made up of disconnections, and if you are paranoid enough, like me, they all splay horizontally into the shortest line imaginable between two incongruous moments picked out by how much they hurt. Consumed with worries from time to time, indignation presents itself as an unlasting relief. I can’t wait till they invent a way out that isn’t through, even for the small stuff. Through the dreaded Erl King’s hair that showers in dead leaves rotting and left behind for a flight I will never be able to afford to Sijilmassa. The crumbling medieval air-baked clay fortifications, I instantly assume, will be a perfect home for me. I listen to this as I fall asleep at night/I read this on my phone in colours of beige awake, when thinking is too disagreeable. All the lights closed so the words light the way, marking each unremembered dream in indelible ink. Carrots of gold in the ground ready to be extracted like teeth swimming in the mouth. You see, a summary of all the extant written sources on Africa in the middle ages is the closest thing we have to peace and happiness. It is the fleeting thing itself. Bursting in mumbles and fleecing to a start, I think I have found the source of Uqbar. Ahbār? A colossus of nearnesses and nearsighted hearings on forgotten trade routes, weathering tethered horses to the centre of a giant golden nugget, to be parcelled out in coin hordes and promptly forgotten. Close enough!

[Lucy Barnhouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fauvelle's book is gorgeously written, as well as being lucid and engaging. Of the most famous of the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia, for instance, he says: "It displays no more joints than the tunic of Christ does seams." Credit goes to Tony Tice, as well, for translating Fauvelle's elegant and incisive portraits of medieval Africa. It's a composite rather than a linear narrative, following map-makers and archaeologists, traders and scholars, as they traverse the diverse landscapes of the continent. Fauvelle does a remarkable job of illuminating both the rich histories of medieval Africa, and the challenges facing scholars and students of those remarkable histories.

[Wim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our knowledge of African history before the European "discoveries" is very fragmented and based on wild speculations: this book really reflects this state of being. Instead of creating a fictional broad narrative, it underlines how little we really know and how much is lost due to theft, plundering and unthoughtful excavations.

Though this is a very honest approach, it does not make the book very readable and comprehensive: it is a collection of short fragments, more dealing with archaeological exploration and written testimonies than with history of ancient empires and peoples.