Africa in History Author:Basil Davidson Africa in History is the much expanded and updated edition of Africa: History of a Continent, published by Macmillan in 1966 and reviewed as "a perfect wedding of first-hand knowledge and prodigious research...[presenting] the essence of African history." — Mr. Davidson has added 15,000 words of text in which he reevaluates and clarifies the basi... more »c historical patterns from which the African present is evolving, incorporating the newest anthropological and linguistic theories, archaeological findings, and historical research. Also, in light of recent political and social changes, he places the "emergent" Africa of today within its own perspective of time and growth and provides fresh insights into the modern era of political emancipation, its leaders, the transition crisis since 1964, the Nigerian civil war, and developments in Rhodesian and White African policies, including the doctrine of Pan-Africanism and the Organization of African Unity.
In its entirety, Africa in History constitutes a chronological synthesis for the history of the whole continent, both north and south of the Sahara. Mr. Davidson offers a clear and scholarly account of the old civilizations in Africa and traces their internal development as well as their varied links with Asia, Europe, and America. He covers in detail the great medieval Iron-Age cultures, the spread of Islam and Christianity, the explorations, the slave trade, and the influx of missionary enterprise, as well as the tribes and religions, the institutions of kingship and kinship, and the differentiation of the races. in the concluding chapters, he discusses the imperialist period of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the growth of African nationalism, and the struggles for independence in the years after 1945.
In Africa in History, Basil Davidson again exhibits the qualities for which he has been praised in the past: "Mr. Davidson knows Africa intimately...he is...one of the best interpreters of its history."
With an eight-page insert of black and white photographs, fourteen maps, and an extensive bibliography.« less