أطلس التاريخ الافريقى

by Colin McEvedy, مختار السويفي (Translator)

كولين ماكيفيدى ترجمة : مختار السويفى
الكتاب يقوم على منهج الكرونيكال حسب تسلسل التاريخ الزمني

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, School, Atlases

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Colin Peter McEvedy was a British polymath scholar, psychiatrist, historian, demographer and non-fiction author.

Reviews

[Lina AL Ojaili · Rating 4 out of 5]

تجارة الرقيق غلب عليها طابع العنصرية بقوة في افريقيا وفي تقرير لمنظمة اليونسكو صادر في عام 1987تحدثت عن 210 مليون نسمة بهذه تجارة طبعا هاد اقوى سبب تخلف اقتصادي لعدم وجود ايدى عاملة

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

For an atlas, the maps are awful: a 2-color mess that uses the same crap outline of the continent, leaving a large portion of each map page to be taken up by water. The hatched patterns that are meant to represent different ethnic groups are confusing and often unlabeled. The Mbuti, called here pygmies, and the San, at least once referred to as "bushmen" get no hatched patterns and so after a brief mention these areas appear empty on the map, as if waiting for the European colonists. Throughout, a kind of map-painting-game imperialist outlook winds its way through the brief descriptions of each era, with the author seeming to cheer for each conqueror; most egregiously when he describes the second Italian invasion of Abyssinia as "better" "apart from the use of mustard gas." The reader would get the impression that slavery had no real effect on the continent and that when it was abolished worse forms of human sacrifice took its place. Thirty years old, we are due not only for a complete overhaul but also for some new maps as we have new states, name changes, and different alliances today, as well as hopefully better archaeological evidence and more respect for indigenous versions of history to better visualize the continent's past. I tried to find something like this book that would be more recent and less eurocentric, but the only books I could find were juvenile.

[رامي رأفت · Rating 5 out of 5]

موجز وقيم جدا كبداية للباحث وللقارئ العادي على السواء .. أكثر ما أثارني في الكتاب الحديث عن الحقبة الاستعمارية .. بداياتها ونهاياتها

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Im not sure if this is the MOST Eurocentric view of Africa, but…

I read the 1994 edition, and it has not aged well. For being ostensibly about Africa and Africans, it sure focuses a lot on what white Europeans were doing.

There’s discussion of how the end of slavery was actually bad for Africans (hurts the finances of slavers and probably the slaves would have died anyway!)

The colonization period is handled particularly poorly. How does one talk about King Leopold’s “interesting” idea for the Congo and not mention the utter atrocities he committed? How does “one thing lead to another” and then the British take another colony? There is literally no mention of or any hinted disapproval of the outrages of colonization.

The conversational, mocking tone is viciously callous about the lives of Africans.

I mean, just read; “Mussolini…was determined to wipe out the memory of Adowa [an Italian defeat by Abyssinia] and this time things were done better — better, that is, if you count the use of mustard gas as an improvement.”

Decolonization isn’t handled much better. Colonial powers mostly give up their holdings benevolently, and sometimes “with good humor,” whatever that might mean. They take care to recommend good governance practices which the African populations screw up. Sure, some incompatible tribes have been crammed into a state, but them’s the colonial state lines, so what can you do?

In general, there are quite a few criticisms of Black Africans, and somehow the exploitation by White Europeans is completely morally neutral.

It’s gross.

[Ahmed Gamal · Rating 2 out of 5]

كتاب لطيف: خطوط عريضة لتاريخ جغرافي للقارة المهملة مختصر في شكل قفزات زمنية متتابعة.
مناسب لبداية رحلة البحث والتعمق في أسرار القارة. الترجمة كانت جيدة.
يعيبه بعض الخرائط الفوضوية والصور العشوائية لآثار لا علاقة لها بموضوع كل فصل.

[Jay Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the author states in the introduction, this is an outline of history and not an atlas. It is a short book filled with maps and explanations. I rate it as a 3 because I purchased an atlas )sight unseen), That aside, it was helpful and the mays made it simple. He does interject opinion. (I happen to agree with many of these opinions, but they are opinions. It would have been nice to have a bibliography or at least suggested readings, but it is a good primer for someone who knows nothing about African history.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short summaries of Afrian history, a good starting point for any novice in the subject.

[Yannicke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short, overly simplistic. But given its size an impressive effort. May be used as point of departure for further reading.

[Grafakos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fine book as far as it goes: as the author notes in the introduction, he intends it as an outline rather than a reference, although his publisher disagrees.

The emphasis here is very much on movement of peoples and the waxing and waning of empires. If you are looking for maps of other key aspects of history, such as distribution of resources, the slave trade, geography, detailed routes of exploration, wars, etc., then look elsewhere. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where, because this appears to be the only atlas of African history in print.

I give the book three stars not because of the narrow focus but because of the disappointing execution of what it does cover.

Every map spans the same region: the entire continent of Africa, the Mediterranean including southern Europe, and the western portion of the Middle East. While these zoomed-out maps are good for giving the big picture, they also sharply limit the level of detail that can be presented. Most atlases will also include more focused maps of smaller regions for this reason, but this one does not.

There are no maps that simply show the geography with names of key features, such as the main rivers, the various climate zones (Sahara, Sahel, Sudan, rainforests, etc.), the great lakes, and the names commonly assigned to the various stretches of coast (Gold Coast, Slave Coast, Ivory Coast, and so forth). Yet all of these features are mentioned frequently throughout the accompanying text. This wasn't a huge deal for me, as I have read other books on Africa and am more or less familiar with the layout, but it makes the atlas less self-contained. Maybe it's not a problem for today's readers, who will probably have a device nearby which can query Wikipedia and the like, but it's a striking omission for a book last updated in 1994.

The text narrative is fine as far as it goes, although more detail would have been welcome, as would references/bibliography/further reading, which are entirely absent.

I suspect that the publisher wanted to keep the page count low; the other Penguin historical atlases that I've seen are also very short (this one is only 130 pages). I'm not sure what the point of this severe brevity could be: this atlas, at least, would be greatly improved by expanding it to 200 pages to include more detailed maps and some of the other missing features identified above, and it would still be admirably portable and convenient to read, without driving the price much higher. And, since this seems to be the only game in town as far as African history atlases, surely most people buying it would not mind paying a few extra dollars for a better product.

Still recommendable as a good overview, but it could have been great.

[Graham Podolecki · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a sucker for historical atlases, McEvedy’s work is always a treat and the atlas of African history is no exception.
The only big thing I found was that it was (of course) out of date since this version was published in 1978. I’m left to ponder the future of Rhodesia, the rule of Zaire and the intransigence of apartheid South Africa.

[Dimitri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost every other page on this book contains an annotated map that illustrates what the text describes. The book starts out well, going back to the times of the Pangaea, describes the break up, the distribution of mammal species, the evolution of the various homos, and the migration of homo sapiens sapiens out of Africa. From that point on, the book starts focusing mainly on Northern Africa and the Mediterranean. As the story progresses it becomes clear that this is "African History" mostly from the perspective of Europeans, with a few Arabs and Turks in the mix. Kingdoms and empires in the Southern African regions receive scant mention. The author becomes the most talkative around the "Age of Discovery", and describes with fascination with the exploits of the Portuguese, mentioning the indigenous African kingdoms briefly and only relative to their relevance to the explorers. This trend continues for the rest of the book.

As an example, in page 88 (AD 1800) there is a page devoted manly to the expedition of Napoleon to Egypt. Only in the last paragraph we read: "Note also the appearance of the first major Bantu kingdom in East Africa, the kingdom of Buganda on the north-west of Lake Victoria". This is the first and last time we will hear of this major kingdom.

After reading this book I am not much wiser regarding proper African history and if this were my only criterion I would not have awarded this book 3 stars. Nevertheless, I like history in general and this was a good overview of historical events in the wider Mediterranean region.

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve read several of McEvedy’s Penguin Atlases now and they’re all winners. If you’ve never seen one what you basically have is an outline map and facing text on each double page. The content of the maps changes chronologically as you read. The beauty of this is that you can see everything that’s happening on the continent at one particular time. Be ready for a few surprises as just a few hundred miles can make for wholly different cultures and stories.

Of particular interest was southern Africa. The stretch of time where nothing appears to happen is staggering. I was reminded of my thoughts on the British Isles where reading the Atlas of Ancient History. You suddenly realise how backwards and isolated the islands have been for most of their history with the delayed arrival of the Bronze and Iron

Ages, and the Renaissance of course. In southern Africa you have no metal working until the colonial period. Why doesn’t it transmit south along the east coast and then inland? This book does not provide answers. There’s no space for anything more than a summary of events and for this area, for most of the history, there’s nothing more than a vague indication of ethnic groups’ territories. There is no real ‘history’ because there was no way to write it down. This book is as old as me though, and perhaps archaeology has since shed more light.

A good format and a good introduction to the subject.

[Julian Abagond · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of Africa, from Pangaea to Mandela, as seen from Britain. But for someone who knows little, it is a good, short introduction. Half of it is about Africa BEFORE 1460.

[Reem Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

ممتاز لمعرفة ماذا كان يحدث في أي بلد بالتزامن مع البلدان الأخرى المحيطة.

[Ethan Hulbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 1994 version.

It was okay. I'm something of a novice for most of African history so on that level I appreciated the high-level, clear overview. It delivered exactly what I was hoping for in that regard - I certainly know more than I did before, a much better general overview from the dawn of history through the 1990s.

But it had a lot of issues. The descriptions really glossed over a LOT and had this tone of, like, "oh, colonialization happened, slavery, yes, anyway" that felt very off. Most of the history was told through the lens of the colonialists, and while that is a significant chunk of the history of course, I came out of it still feeling like I didn't know anything about AFRICA, only about its various invaders.

I liked that the map stayed exactly consistent every page - made it easy to follow. Except the map was often REALLY poorly labeled, or just didn't have enough labels, or the descriptions would reference things not pointed out on the map (or only pointed out an arbitrary number of pages ago).

So, overall, it wasn't the worst, wasn't the best, it was an okay introduction but hopefully something like this has been done much better in the last 30 years past this.

[Edwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published in 1980, this is an interesting book given its time and place. With Portugal relinquishing its final colonies in 1975, this book provides a time-capsule like snapshot, with its analysis talking about an African continent yet to come. Without knowledge of our current developments, McEvedy’s assessment of where Africa may go is quite eye opening and a reflection of what individuals at the time may have thought about the continent’s trajectory.

As a book about African history, it fails very short. Much of the writing is steeped in a Eurocentric view of history, and vast swathes of African cultures and civilizations are brushed aside as insignificant, which is ironic for a work focused on the African continent. It is telling that the book goes into more detail, length, and specifics as we get to the 19th century than any other period preceding it. If one is looking for a comprehensive and nuanced book on Africa throughout the ages, this is not it.

[Coby Whitmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate having so much information packed into such a concise (yet self-aware in its unavoidable oversimplification) book. There is much here that we ought to learn in American schools. The language is a bit outdated (my edition was published in 1978), but from what I can see, the author manages to sensitively navigate the interactions between dozens of ethnic groups without taking any particular sides, and at the same time, he doesn’t completely sanitize his account by unnaturally avoiding his own ethical opinions regarding the behavior of leaders and governments. I’ll be revisiting this one often, I expect.

[Macha · Rating 4 out of 5]

such a big subject. i remember the maps in public school; Africa was mostly red (British empire). and then in history classes soon enough, never mentioned again. in university there were no courses in it. meanwhile, it turned out to be the birth of civilization. this is not so much an atlas as titled, more an outline history, as the author points out. and as such, very useful as an introduction to the continent.

[Hanipal Hamilcar · Rating 4 out of 5]

مابين الزمان والمكان رحلة ماراثونية ممتعة وشيقة. كم من دول دالت وزالت وممالك وملوك ووو ولاشئ يبقى
العمل جيد جدا والترجمة لاتقل عنه دقة وبحث كعادة مختار السويفي الذي له علينا افضال كثيرة
اللوحات المرفقة جميلة والخرائط مفيدة جدا وياحبذا لو طبعت الخرئط واللوحات ملونة في المستقبل

[Michael Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might be a bit too basic for people looking for concrete details, but all in all, this is a very nice introduction to the history of Africa with handy maps giving a visual aid to each time period covered.

[Bruinrefugee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often treated more as a sick step-child, Africa rarely gets much coverage or broad-view treatment. While somewhat sparser than other atlases in the Colin McEvedy series, this too is full of insight and a decent dollop of his wit. Not so detailed as to overwhelm, it provides a good feel for the continent's history.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly helpful supplement to my African History texts. My fellow students were jealous of my find.

[Kurtis]

From Pangaea to People. The ancient Egyptian empire and Carthage entries are mind tingling.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

McEvedy has complied a synopsis of the history of civilization and cultures for Africa. He traces the rise and fall of African civilizations, some obscure.

[Ahmed Hussein · Rating 2 out of 5]

كتاب جيد إلى حد ما.. وان كنت اتمنى ان يهتم كولن مكيفيدي باطلس تاريخ أفريقيا نفس الاهتمام الذي لاقاه أطلس تاريخ أوروبا

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maps. Have some.

[Abdullah At-taaeb]

helpful book for the person that wants a quick introduction to African history.