Forrest’s Reviews > A History of West Africa, 1000-1800 > Status Update

Just about done mining this primer for information. Then the real research begins.

I sometimes forget how much concentration it takes to winnow through some academic texts, especially one this old. Still, there are rewards for those who focus.

So complex, yet so little information. I think I need to go back and reread my historiography texts from grad school to remind myself why the recorded history is so sparse for this era in Africa. It's all "hints and allegations". :)

Now we're in the meat of my interests: polity and social structure of the 16th and 17th centuries.

The colonialism side of me wants maps with definite boundaries. The part of me that studied African history in grad school knows that this just isn't gonna happen.

Amazed at how much I forgot from graduate school and how much I remember. A lot of the small details are still with me, but there are some noticeable gaps in the big picture. Weird.