A History of African Societies to 1870

Description

This newly comprehensive and detailed exploration of the African past, reaching from prehistory to approximately 1870, is intended to provide a fully up-to-date textbook, thematically organized, for undergraduate students of African history. Reflecting several emphases in recent scholarship, Professor Isichei focuses on the changing modes of production, on gender relations and on ecology, laying particular stress on viewing history 'from below'. A distinctive theme is to be found in her analyses of cognitive history. The work falls into three sections. The first comprises a historiographic analysis, covering the period from the dawn of prehistory to the end of the Early Iron Age. The second and third sections are, for the most part, organised on regional lines; the second section ends in the sixteenth century; the third carries the story on to 1870. Explaining each facet of the continent's history with exceptional erudition, balance and sympathy, Professor Isichei displays both an immense learning and a thorough command of the literature. A second volume, now in preparation, will cover the period from 1870 to 1995. A history of African societies to 1870 Contents List of illustrations Figures 1 Human evolution 2 Long-term climate change 3 African language families: Afroasiatic 4 African language families: Nilo-Saharan 5 African language families: Kordofanian and Niger-Congo Maps 1 Human evolution: archaeological sites 2 African language families 3 Bantu languages 4 Cradles of domestication 5 Central Africa 6 Eastern Africa 7 South Africa 8 Northern Africa in antiquity 9 Northern Africa (seventh to twelfth centuries) 10 Egypt and the Near East: Fatimids and Mamluks 11 The North-East 12 The Western Sudan (to c. 1600) 13 Lower Guinea 14 The Western and Central Sudan: the nineteenth century 15 Southern Africa: the nineteenth century 16 East and Central Africa: the nineteenth century Acknowledgements Part I: Continental perspectives Perimeters 1 Prelude: Africa and the historians 2 Out of Africa: the precursors 3 Environment, language and art c. 10,000 — c. 500 BCE 4 Producing more food c. 10,000 — c. 500 BCE 5 Copper and iron c. 600 BCE to c. 1000 CE 6 Models: production, power and gender Part II: Regional histories to the sixteenth century 7 Central Africa 8 Eastern Africa 9 Africa south of the Limpopo 10 Northern Africa to the seventh century CE 11 Northern Africa from the seventh century CE 12 The North-East 13 The Western Sudan 14 West Africa: from the savanna to the sea Part III: Regional histories to c. 1870 15 Northern Africa 16 The Western Sudan in a time of jihad 17 The Eastern and Central Sudan 18 The Atlantic slave trade 19 West Africa to 1800 20 West Africa 1800 to 1870 21 Central Africa 22 Southern Africa 23 East and East Central Africa Notes Some suggestions for further reading Index