History of Africa

by Kevin Shillington

• ISBN13: 9780333599570
• ISBN10: 0333599578
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-10-01
• Publisher: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Summary

Now fully revised and updated, this classic text offers an illustrated and critical narrative introduction to the history of Africa from earliest times to the present. Beginning with the evolution of mankind itself, the book traces the history of Africa through the millennia of the ancient world to the centuries of medieval and modern Africa. The clear and simple language and the wealth of carefully chosen maps and photos combine to make an essential and accessible text.

Author Biography

Kevin Shillington is currently based in London and works as a freelance historian. He holds an MA and PhD in African History from the University of London and his publications include Jugnauth: Prime Minister of Mauritius (1991) and Ghana and the Rawlings Factor (1992).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
List of Maps	ix
Preface	xii
Chapter 1 Early prehistory of Africa	1	(12)
The 'cradle of humankind'	1	(6)
Hunting, fishing and gathering in the Late Stone Age	7	(3)
Climate change, adaptation and the ancestry of African languages	10	(3)
Chapter 2 Later prehistory: farming and pastoralism in tropical Africa and Ancient Egypt	13	(22)
Crop cultivation, domestication and the origins of farming	13	(1)
The impact of agriculture	14	(2)
The origins of farming and pastoralism in tropical Africa	16	(5)
Ancient Egypt	21	(14)
Chapter 3 The impact of iron in North and West Africa	35	(14)
The spread and impact of early metal-working	35	(1)
Origins of iron-working	36	(4)
The Iron Age Kingdom of Meroe	40	(6)
Iron Age North Africa and early trans-Saharan trade	46	(3)
Chapter 4 The Early Iron Age in central, Eastern and Southern Africa	49	(12)
Evidence for the spread of iron-working	49	(3)
Origins of the Early Iron Age in sub-equatorial Africa	52	(1)
The spread of the Early Iron Age	52	(5)
The development and organisation of Early Iron Age society	57	(4)
Chapter 5 North and North-Eastern Africa to 1000 CE	61	(16)
Northern Africa in the Graeco-Roman period	61	(4)
The spread of Christianity in Northern Africa	65	(2)
The origins and rise of Aksum	67	(4)
The Arab invasions: the Nile valley and the Maghrib	71	(6)
Chapter 6 Trans-Saharan trade and the kingdom of Ancient Ghana	77	(11)
Trans-Saharan trade	77	(3)
The kingdom of ancient Ghana	80	(6)
Other early West African states and societies	86	(2)
Chapter 7 Islam and the Sudanic states of West Africa	88	(18)
The Almoravids	88	(2)
The Muslim states of North Africa, 1100-1500	90	(2)
The empire of Mali	92	(6)
The decline of Mali	98	(1)
The origins and rise of Songhay	99	(5)
The Fulbe (or Fulani)	104	(2)
Chapter 8 Eastern Africa to the sixteenth century	106	(14)
The Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, 850-1550	106	(4)
The Muslim penetration of Ethiopia and Somalia, 850-1550	110	(4)
Pastoralists and farmers of the East African interior	114	(6)
Chapter 9 Trading towns of the East African coast to the sixteenth century	120	(16)
The origins of East African coastal trading society	120	(6)
The growth of Swahili trading towns	126	(3)
The Portuguese on the East African coast, 1498-1600	129	(6)
Madagascar	135	(1)
Chapter 10 Later Iron Age states and societies of central and Southern Africa to 1600	136	(20)
The emergence of Later Iron Age states North of the Zambezi	137	(7)
The development of Later Iron Age communities South of the Zambezi	144	(3)
The origins and character of the Great Zimbabwe tradition	147	(6)
Cattle-keeping peoples South of the Limpopo	153	(3)
Chapter 11 North and North-East Africa to the eighteenth century	156	(13)
The Arabisation' of Northern Africa	156	(1)
From Fatimid to Mamluk: Egypt before the Ottoman conquest	157	(4)
Egypt under Ottoman rule	161	(1)
Nubia and the Funj Sultanate	162	(1)
Oromo migrations and the kingdom of Ethiopia	163	(3)
States of the Maghrib, sixteenth to eighteenth century	166	(3)
Chapter 12 The Atlantic slave trade, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries	169	(10)
The origins of European maritime trade with West Africa	169	(3)
The nature of the slave trade	172	(5)
Profit from the slave trade: the European dimension	177	(2)
Chapter 13 West African states and societies, to the eighteenth century	179	(16)
The fall of the Songhay empire	179	(3)
The sultanate of Borno-Kanem	182	(2)
The Hausa city-states	184	(2)
Wolof kingdoms of Senegambia	186	(1)
Kingdoms of the forest: Ife and Benin	186	(3)
Oyo and Dahomey, savannah states of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries	189	(3)
The kingdom of Asante	192	(3)
Chapter 14 Central and Eastern Africa to the eighteenth century	195	(15)
Farmers, fishers and hunters of the Congo forest	195	(1)
West-central Africa in the era of the slave trade	196	(3)
Central African empires and the growth of trade	199	(5)
The East African interior West of Lake Victoria Nyanza	204	(3)
The East African interior East of Lake Victoria Nyanza	207	(3)
Chapter 15 Southern Africa to the eighteenth century	210	(14)
Southern Africa before 1650	210	(1)
The early Cape Colony: white settlement and Khoisan resistance, 1650-1770	210	(6)
The Cape–Xhosa wars of the late eighteenth century	216	(2)
States and societies of the Southern African interior, 1600-1800	218	(6)
Chapter 16 West Africa in the nineteenth century and the ending of the slave trade	224	(16)
Islamic jihads in the Western Sudan	224	(6)
The ending of the Atlantic slave trade	230	(4)
The expansion of 'legitimate commerce'	234	(3)
Sierra Leone and Liberia	237	(3)
Chapter 17 Central and East Africa in the nineteenth century	240	(16)
West-central Africa in the nineteenth century	240	(2)
Kingdom of the floodplain	242	(2)
The development of long-distance trade in East-central Africa	244	(4)
Invasion from the South: the Ngoni	248	(1)
The East African slave trade	249	(1)
The trade in ivory and slaves in the interior of central Africa	250	(5)
Madagascar: the rise of the Merina kingdom	255	(1)
Chapter 18 Pre-industrial Southern Africa in the nineteenth century	256	(17)
State-building and destruction: the Mficane/Difavne and its effects	256	(8)
The British at the Cape	264	(3)
The Boer Trek and African resistance	267	(4)
Southern Africa in 1870	271	(2)
Chapter 19 North and North-East Africa in the nineteenth century	273	(15)
The French in North Africa and Algerian resistance	273	(3)
Egypt and the Sudan to the Mandist jihad	276	(7)
The reunification of Ethiopia	283	(5)
Chapter 20 Prelude to empire in tropical Africa	288	(13)
Christian missionaries in the pre-colonial era	288	(5)
European explorers: the mapping of Africa as a prelude to Empire	293	(8)
Chapter 21 The European 'Scramble', colonial conquest and African resistance in East, North-central and West Africa	301	(16)
The 'Scramble for Africa'	301	(5)
Conquest and resistance	306	(11)
Chapter 22 Industrialisation, colonial conquest and African resistance in South-central and Southern Africa	317	(15)
The Southern African mineral revolution	317	(4)
The British 'Scramble' for South-central Africa	321	(5)
Wars of conquest and resistance in Mozambique	326	(1)
Conquest and resistance in Namibia	327	(2)
The South African War (1899-1902)	329	(3)
Chapter 23 Consolidation of empire: the early period of colonial rule	332	(16)
Raw materials and markets	332	(4)
Peasant production and railways in West Africa	336	(2)
Peasant producers, railways and white settlement in British East Africa	338	(1)
Rebellion in the German colonies	339	(3)
Missionaries, Christianity and early expressions of 'nationalism'	342	(2)
The First World War and Africa, 1914-18	344	(4)
Chapter 24 Africa between the wars: the high tide of colonial rule	348	(18)
The economic impact of colonial rule	348	(6)
The nature and impact of colonial administration	354	(4)
The spread of Islam in tropical West Africa	358	(1)
Education: from pre-colonial tradition to colonial reality	359	(2)
African nationalism and protest movements in the inter-war years	361	(2)
Segregation, nationalism and protest in South Africa	363	(3)
Chapter 25 The Second World War and Africa	366	(10)
Fascist aggression and the Second World War in North and North-East Africa	366	(5)
The impact of the war on Africa and Africans	371	(5)
Chapter 26 The winning of independence (1)	376	(18)
Colonial development strategies	376	(1)
The winning of independence in British West Africa	377	(3)
The winning of independence in French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa	380	(3)
The struggle for independence in the Maghrib	383	(2)
Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia	385	(3)
The winning of independence in British East Africa	388	(6)
Chapter 27 The winning of independence (2)	394	(23)
Independence in Belgian-ruled central Africa	394	(6)
Federation and independence in British central Africa	400	(4)
The winning of independence in Portuguese-ruled Africa	404	(4)
The winning of independence in Zimbabwe	408	(1)
The struggle for freedom in Southern Africa	409	(5)
Independence on the islands	414	(3)
Chapter 28 Africa since independence (1)	417	(14)
The political legacy of colonial rule	417	(2)
The economic legacy of underdevelopment and dependency	419	(2)
The early drive for economic development	421	(3)
The role of the military in African politics	424	(3)
Socialism and self-reliance: the Tanzanian course	427	(4)
Chapter 29 Africa since independence (2)	431	(10)
Drought, debt and development: the dilemmas of the 1980's and 1990's	431	(5)
International cooperation and the Organisation of African Unity	436	(5)
Chapter 30 Africa and the New Millennium	441	(19)
Democratic progress in the 1990's	441	(2)
North Africa	443	(2)
West Africa	445	(4)
Eastern and Central Africa	449	(6)
Southern Africa	455	(4)
Africa in the new millennium	459	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	460	(9)
Index	469