Eine afrikanische Geschichte Afrikas: Vom Ursprung der Menschheit bis zur Unabhängigkeit

by Zeinab Badawi, Elsbeth Ranke (Translator), Karin Schuler (Translator)

Afrika - Kontinent einer reichen Geschichte

Die Geschichte Afrikas ist die Geschichte der Anfänge der menschlichen Zivilisation. Es ist die Geburtsstätte der Menschheit selbst, und doch ist nur wenig über die frühe und auch die moderne Geschichte bekannt. 

Afrika hat eine außergewöhnliche Vergangenheit; eine reiche und fesselnde Geschichte von Kriegerköniginnen, Königen, Häuptlingen, Priestern und Priesterinnen; von mächtigen Zivilisationen; von üppigen, in den Fels gehauenen Gebäuden, exquisiten Bibliotheken, die vor Entdeckungen nur so strotzten, geschäftigen Karawanenstraßen und Marktplätzen, die von den Stimmen der Händler, Reisenden, Bauern und Gauklern erfüllt waren. 

Für viele beginnt diese Geschichte sogar erst mit Ankunft der Europä Zeinab Badawi möchte dieses Narrativ ändern und bietet eine beeindruckende Geschichte Afrikas – aus afrikanischer Perspektive. Von alten Zivilisationen und Kriegerköniginnen bis zu Eroberung und Unabhängigkeit fängt sie die Schlüsselmomente ein und erzählt fesselnd die reiche Geschichte des großen Kontinents.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Africa, Politics, Audiobook, World History, Historical

511 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Rick Riordan]

I found this a great read for filling in some of the woefully large holes in my knowledge of African history. It's often said you don't know what you don't know, and this was definitely true for me as I read Badawi's sweeping overview of the continent.

The book is best considered as an introductory survey. There is no way one book can do justice to all of Africa's history from the dawn of time to the present day, and I imagine many readers who are looking for in-depth information on any of the topics covered herein may come away disappointed. But for me, a general reader with only the most cursory understanding of African history, it was a helpful launching point. I also appreciated the author's personal accounts of her travels across Africa and her meetings with local scholars to discuss how they see their own history, as opposed to how it is framed by outsiders (if indeed outsiders bother to cover African history at all).

I now want to go find biographies of some of the fascinating historical characters Badawi introduced me to, if I can find them! Too little attention is paid to the heroism and exceptionalism of African leaders in the wider world, where the focus tends to be on the outsiders who came to the continent and how they exploited it. I appreciated the southern African proverb which Badawi quoted:

"When the lions have historians, then the hunters will cease to be heroes."

Discussing Africa's resistance against colonialism, Badawi makes the following observation, which I found fascinating, but which I am not really qualified to evaluate:

"Contrary to popular belief, independence was won mostly through peaceful and organized mass resistance, demonstrations, strikes and political rallies. Countries that gained independence through the power of protest . . . went on to enjoy better levels of democracy than those forced to do so through armed rebellions."

All in all, I came away with a much greater appreciation for the African perspective and the continent's place in the interplay of global history. I would certainly recommend the book for novices in this field, such as myself!

[Mai H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this took a while to pick up, I'm glad it was more expansive in view than AFRICAN ICONS: TEN PEOPLE WHO BUILT A CONTINENT, which mostly touched on Egypt.

Africa is one of the most, if not the most, diverse continent on the planet. It is not just Egypt. It certainly isn't the Egypt of the past, ruled by Macedonian Greeks.

This picks up after Egypt. Several countries from varying areas are discussed, and the role colonization played in depriving citizens of natural resources. A map shows a tiny area that wasn't colonized. It's hard to say which European nation did the most damage, but know it was extensive.

My thirst wasn't quite quenched here. I'd like to delve a little deeper into each country's own history. As always, if you have recommendations, by authors of that background, please send.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, this book broke my heart a bit. Zeinab Badawi's An African History of Africa is absolutely packed with interesting tidbits, people, and ideas. There is so much to like about it. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of information is also what sinks it.

Badawi looks at the entire continent of Africa from literally the dawn of man until now. She jumps around to different time periods and focuses each chapter on a specific part of Africa. She also did tremendous amount of first hand research as she documents embedding with people living in a traditional village or gazing directly upon the monuments she is presenting. Each chapter also quotes at least a few native Africans to discuss various topics and why this is an African history of Africa. Badawi also doesn't shy away from diving into more controversial aspects. For example, she even mentions the recent uproar when a recent TV series presented Cleopatra as black. All of this is great stuff so why am I heartbroken?

Well, the problem is that Badawi is covering so much ground, both literally and figuratively, that nothing is examined enough and the writing is often choppy. I recall in one chapter that Badawi starts to dig into the history of slavery and how Africans were a part of this horrible stain on humanity. She presents a very intelligent breakdown of the African view and I was hooked. But then we moved onto another topic which was tangentially related. It's such a shame because there are parts where Badawi slows down and it is crystal clear that she can write well. Sadly, I think the scope was just too big and forced her to cut way too much to keep this book from being ten times longer. I would read that book.

All that said, there is a lot of great information in this book. I can't score it higher because of the issues I mentioned, but if you go in knowing what you may run into, I think there is still tons of worthwhile material.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Mariner Books.)

[Kist · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Solid, sweeping overview.

[Tondi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compiling African history into a coherent narrative is the immense task undertaken by veteran British-Sudanese journalist and President of SOAS, University of London - Zeinab Badawi. Given this is a historical text there are no spoilers as such. An African History of Africa commences at the beginning of life itself – with the oldest known humanoid ancestor Lucy aka Dinkenesh who lived 3.2 million years ago, discovered in Harar, Ethiopia. Thereafter, each chapter focuses on a specific theme or kingdom of import. Refreshingly there are no lazy amalgamations of the continental enthnosphere, Africa after all is not a country. Throughout the book, Badawi challenges the reader to reimagine their understanding of what constitutes “civilisation”, whose standards must be used to determine what is valid and worthy of veneration? Although the author deconstructs prejudicial assertions, her lens is eruditely rooted in constructing an African retelling of events.

Read the full review here: https://www.hararebookclub.com/home/a...-

Thank you to Ebury Publishing for providing Harare Book Club with an advance reviewer copy.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an admirable project on Badawi's part to offer up a history of Africa that turns our usual narratives (and I say that as someone educated in the UK) on their head by focusing on the perspective from African voices and scholars. Nevertheless, it's worth commenting on aspects that I'd like to have been aware of before picking up this book:

Firstly, as Badawi herself states, this is a 'panoramic sweep across Africa, a short history of the continent with the longest human history in the world'. This does, inevitably, mean that depth is sacrificed as is analysis - imagine a history of the whole of Europe or the whole of the Middle East in under 400 pages.

Secondly, Badawi is not a historian, she's a journalist and broadcaster and her experience shows in the almost documentary-like personal and travelogue approach: 'I wanted to learn more about the origins of Kush and so I sought out the expertise of both Dr Shadia Taha and archeologist Dr Abdelrahman Ali, General Director of the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums' - I could picture this as a segue in a BBC documentary leading to soundbite interviews where we could also explore the rich visuals of the cultures being explored. It's less engaging for me as a reader in what purports to be narrative history.

There is much selecting of material here and while the introduction claims that the book will focus on pre-colonial Africa, there are four chapters out of 17 that are explicitly about colonialism, the exploitation of resources and the plights of Africans in the two world wars, resistance movements in Algeria, Kenya (with a snapshot of Barack Obama's grandfather tortured by the British for his role in the Mau Mau uprising) and very, very briefly South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as a sentence or two on the American and Belgian complicity in the execution of Patrice Lumumba in the DRC. All of these are vast topics that have generated literatures of their own so they feel less than snapshots here, simplified beyond more than the most superficial treatment.

Badawi tends to side-step controversy even when she notes it: the issue of Cleopatra and Egypt's place in Africa; issues of reparations; questions over corruption, democracy and fair and free elections. She's endlessly hopeful which is actually nice to read even if cynical me can't quite buy in to the same optimism.

For me, the strongest chapters are the earlier ones of the rise (and fall) of African cultural powers: the incredible scholarly centre in fourteenth and fifteenth century Timbuktu (Mali) where vast libraries were curated with a body of African literature written mostly in Arabic and encompassing works on law, astronomy, science, medicine and mathematics that didn't reach western Europe until the Renaissance (and if anyone wants to see this appearing in a work of fiction, I'd recommend Scales of Gold); the incredible 'Mande Charter' of 1236, also a product of the Empire of Mali which guaranteed liberty, dignity and equality to all citizens of Mali (cf. Magna Carta of 1215 which was only between the Crown and Barons, not English citizens as a group) and which predated the Declaration of the Rights of Man following the French Revolution by almost 500 years (and even that excluded women, Jews and other categories such as men who didn't meet a property threshold).

It's stories like this that give the lie to the great colonialists' falsehood of Africa being essentially terra nullius - a nobody's land up for opportunistic grab and exploitation.

So there is material to be enjoyed here and matter for education - personally, however, I'd have preferred something deeper, more specific and more analytical. It's slightly counter-intuitive to treat the whole of Africa in a single book when part of the story is about the vastness of the continent, the different histories and cultures subsumed under that name, and the way colonial powers failed to recognise ethnic, cultural and language differences when they carved out their territories. Nevertheless, for a quick sweep in amiable company, this is enjoyable and eminently accessible.

[Gerhard · Rating 1 out of 5]

History books are triggering for me, as it is taught so badly at school level. This is a particularly bad example of modern historiography / hagiography. The author travelled worldwide and interviewed a plethora of experts ... only to reduce them to soundbites as fact checkers. It could have been so much more.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crisp, respectful and refreshing! I learned so much. Badawi has shown a spotlight on a continent close to her heart. Her storytelling was engaging and her joy contagious!

[Anand · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but found two major issues:

1: It’s not objective. Zeinab Badawi is an award winning journalist, but here she’s nakedly promotional of Africa.

2: The writing is bland. It consists of seemingly AI-generated “one damn fact after another”-style history peppered with very short asides about the author visiting African sites or speaking with African professors. Even these asides are written in oddly stilted language. It’s gets better in the later chapters, but is a tough slog to get there.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

My top Non Fiction book of 2024
This book will make you cry chapter 14 is very important and upsetting.
This book took ten years to write and only a black woman could write it.
It never gets boring and is full of wonder about parts of Africa lost in time and forever forgotten.
Traveling around Africa meeting people who live in the worst places a really good history book

[SALEM · Rating 4 out of 5]

A colonialist will tell you this land we have invaded were empty with no people, with no History.

Africa has been always in the imagination of western civilization, a place where still virgin like how a human started their evolution journey.

In Chapter "Southern Kingdoms", I felt with with rage when author described how some European researchers refused to accept the idea that some of very beautiful ancient cultural artifacts were created by local tribes in Great Zimbabwe, and they insisted that, those artifacts must be imported or built by foreign cultures!

I loved the concept of the book. To tell the story of Africa by Africans.

I might have many considerations about author style in driving information and conclusion, where I believe such a book will not be approved for a Hardcore historians.

But for me, this was indeed an lovely important reading.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very solid overview on the history of a massively complex and diverse continent.

I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more about the individual countries and cultures within the African continent.

[Dave Schoettinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many years ago, when my children were in grade school, my son expressed an interest in attending a Major League baseball game. Somewhat surprisingly, my daughter also indicated a desire to go. So, shortly thereafter, the three of us were sitting in the left field bleachers on a warm Sunday afternoon. As the home team came to bat in the bottom of the first inning, my daughter surprised me again by matter of factly stating, "We can go home now." I patiently replied that it was just the first inning and that there were eight more to play. "Well", she explained, "I only came to find out what the players did while the television showed commercials."

Similarly, I and many other Americans, especially those of us who have not been in school for many decades, may well have wondered what Africans were doing while our world history textbooks were focused on Europe, North America, and occasionally Asia. Fortunately, Zeinab Badawi, has provided this book to not only fill in some of those blank spots, but also to give an African perspective on African history. To return to baseball for a moment, Professor Badawi's narrative does sometimes remind me of the radio announcer who is clearly rooting for the home team, but she is very open about her viewpoint and intends it as an alternative to so many other narratives that were clearly written from the opposing dugout.

This is not a tedious, scholarly work. She has only 78 footnotes in almost 500 pages of text. She has traveled throughout Africa talking to knowledgeable Africans at historic sites and relays a lot of information not found in standard histories. Her narrative is extremely readable and keeps moving through her descriptions of various cultures that dominated parts of Africa over the last three millennia.

[Jassmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very ambitious project and as such it necessarily has some short-comings. I do prefer to dive deeper into a subject as opposed to having chapters that focus on different topics, mostly because that doesn't mix in the best way with the way my attention span functions. All of which is to say, I feel like I could have got more out of this book (especially if I wasn't listening to it on audio, I think) and I also wanted more out of it. But at the same time I don't think that it's the fault of bad construction. For what it is, this book is doing quite well, I believe.

The thing I'm really taking out of this is that everything is a question of perspective. Although this book contained a lot of new information for me, it also contained some topics that I was already familiar with but that weren't labeled in my brain as "African History" although they obviously are - Ancient Egypt, Punic Wars, certain aspects of Crusades history. Badawi also addresses some modern discussions about history which were quite telling (about Cleopatra's race for example).


Overall, I'm definitely glad I read this, I do think this is pretty good starter book on the topic and I do hope to read some more specific books in the future!

[Poppy || Monster Lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a worthwhile read. The author is clear from the beginning that this isn’t a complete history of the continent (which I hope would be clear to anyone who picks up any book about a continent). I learned about civilizations I’d never heard of and found more reasons to hate the ones I do know well. I appreciated that the focus wasn’t solely on ancient Egypt or the Transatlantic slave trade, although both still have a clear place in the book. I appreciated how much time was spent on educating the reader about resistance fighters in various countries under colonial rule. I def have more reading to do about individual nations in the continent.

Triggers: this book touches on everything that could trigger someone

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gut lesbarer Überblick über die Geschichte immerhin eines Kontinents, auf dem sich heute 53 Staaten etabliert haben und der eine schier unüberblickbare Zahl historischer Reiche und Großreiche hervorgebracht hat, die jeweils ihre sozioökonomischen und ethnischen Eigenheiten hatten. Dass die Autorin diese jeweils nur grob umreißen kann (Viehwirtschaft, Ackerbau oder Siedlungswesen mit Eisenherstellung usw.) ist ihr angesichts dieser Vielfalt und der nicht immer reichhaltigen Forschungslage nicht anzulasten. Auch, dass der Schwerpunkt der Darstellung auf den "großen Einzelnen" liegt, ist angesichts der meist mündlichen Überlieferung im Stil eines Heldenepos nur natürlich. Hervorzuheben ist das Bestreben, "großen Frauen" einen gebührenden Platz zuzuweisen, was freilich angesichts der Rolle von Frauen in traditionellen Stammesgesellschaften nun auch wieder nicht so schwer gewesen sein dürfte. Aber es zeigt doch das Bemühen, Leerstellen der europäischen Forschung oder Interpretation aufzuzeigen und zu füllen. Das gehört zweifelsfrei zu den Vorzügen des umfangreichen Textes, der den Bogen spannt vom Frühmenschen über das alte Ägypten bis hin zu den schwarzafrikanischen mittelalterlichen Reichsbildungen und von dort zu Sklaverei, Kolonialismus und den antikolonialen Behauptungs- und schließlich Befreiungskämpfen. Dabei liegt die Schwerpunkte auf der nordafrikanischen Zivilisationsgeschichte und dann auf den großen mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Reichsbildungen (Ghana- und Mali- Reich, Kongo, Zulu usw.) Ausführlich geht es um den Sklavenhandel und die unrühmliche Rolle, die afrikanische Eliten dabei gespielt haben. Die ökonomischen und psychosozialen Auswirkungen werden allerdings eher angerissen und als gegeben behauptet, als dass sie ausführlich dargestellt und einsichtig begründet würden.

Damit ist ein Schwachpunkt der Darstellung angesprochen. Des weiteren hätte ich mir gewünscht, etwas genauer über die Herkunft bestimmter Herrschercharakteristiken aufgeklärt zu werden. Zwar werden schriftliche Überlieferungen gelegentlich als Beleg angeführt, aber wie die Griots und andere Sänger das Leben der Könige, das ihrer Frauen und Kinder usw. emblematisch gefasst haben, wird nicht ganz klar. Vom europäischen Mittelalter weiß man, dass Wendungen wie "schön", "lieblich", "weise" etc. von Minnesängern ritualisiert auch auf hässliche oder dumme Frauen übertragen wurden, da sie eher die einem sozialen Rang zukommenden Attribute meinten als dass eine Charakterisierung der konkreten Herrin ins Auge gefasst wurde. Wie war das in Afrika? Gelten hier die Regeln antiker Epen, also Mythologien, oder sind die Gesänge der europäischen Heldenepik vergleichbar? Offen bleibt also die Frage nach der Interpretation mündlicher Überlieferungen, die von "Tapferkeit", "Schönheit", "Stärke" usw. sprachen, Charakteristika, die von der Autorin übernommen und positiv gewertet werden, auch wenn sie andererseits von "Grausamkeit" oder von Fehlern spricht.

Im Ganzen verständlich, aber auch ein bisschen irritierend, ist in diesem Sinne das Bemühen, allem Afrikanischen positive Seiten abzugewinnen und Negatives auszublenden. Das fällt besonders im letzten Teil auf, wenn es um Staatsgründer oder Führer wie Mugabe, Senghor oder Traoré geht, deren oft wenig rühmliche Rolle in späterer Zeit vollständig ausgeblendet wird. Hier wäre es hilfreich gewesen, wenn die Autorin ihre Sicht auf die Gründe für Vetternwirtschaft, Abgleiten in Diktaturen usw. nicht verheimlichen würde. Aber insgesamt ist das lässliche Kritik, denn im letzteren Falle ist die Schelte das übliche Geschäft "unserer" Medien und man mag der Autorin ihren Stolz auf die oft klein geredeten Leistungen der Afrikaner nicht gerne schmälern; was die Fragen nach Eigenheiten der Oral History, sozialen Schichtungen und inneren Konflikten usw. angeht, muss man sich halt mit speziellen Veröffentlichungen zu diesen Themen auseinandersetzen. Der Überblick ist jedenfalls informativ und enthält viele Hinweise auf (in Europa) wenig bekannte Zivilisationen und historische Fundstätten. Man bedauert nach der Lektüre, dass nicht mehr Forschungs- und Konservierungsmittel zur besseren Erschließung/ Erhaltung dieser Geschichte bereit stehen.

Für mich persönlich "witzig" auch kleine Details über die Geschichte meiner Kinderheimat Mali: Ségou war für mich z.B. bisher nur eine Kreisstadt mit ein bisschen Kolonialflair; dass sich hier früher das Zentrum eines kleinen Reichs befand, wusste ich nicht. Auch dass die staatliche Existenz Guineas anfangs von Hilfskrediten aus Ghana abhing, war mir entgangen. "Congo" bedeutet also "Metall" und die großen Moscheen in Gao und Timbuktu sind von auswärtigen Architekten geplant worden. Das alles ist ganz spannend. Die Lektüre hat mich also bereichert und ich meine, das würde auch auf viele andere Leser, die nicht "vom Fach" sind, zutreffen. Zeinab Badawi hat mithin einen Text vorgelegt, dem man viele Nachfolger wünscht, die vielleicht die kleinen hier angesprochenen Mängel (vergessen habe ich, dass die Autorin pro-sowjetische und andere Sozialismusversuche z.B. in Mali nicht erwähnt, weil sie offensichtlich liberalen und wirtschaftsliberalen Ansichten zuneigt) beheben und unser Verständnis für Afrika weiter vertiefen. Insgesamt also eine empfehlenswerte Lektüre.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting and detailed book looking at African history by Africans. liked the different prespective

[Kathrin W · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this because I thought the concept was interesting - an African history from an explicitly African perspective - but it was so poorly written that I gave up after 100 pages.

In contrast to other history books that I've read, even with a single chapter (such as the history of ancient Egypt) it didn't weave an overarching narrative or provide contextualization. Instead, it read like a bunch of random Wikipedia articles pasted together.

The author did mention when the African perspective differed from the view prevailing in the West, which I thought was really interesting. However, the "African" perspective was almost always based on an interview with a single African scholar who the author had lunch with, without any indepth discussion of the different opinions. I also doubt that there is a simple dichotomy of opinion ("all Western scholars believe that x is the truth and all African scholars believe y") which is how the data was often presented.

[Sonali V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been searching for a comprehensive introductory book on African History. This book was good, pleasant to read through. At times though it was almost like a text book, the language pedestrian, just the facts stated. I wanted to know more from pre-history too. But she has covered an immense continent, with some chapters being more illuminating and interesting than others. The notes at the end is certainly very detailed.

[amycw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. As a world history teacher, I always want more information about Africa because it gets overlooked, other than from a slavery and European imperialism perspective. However, this book had two major flaws.

First, the research didn't go beyond basic, commonly known information. Everything about Mansa Musa, Anna Nzinga, the Zulus, etc., is stuff I'm already teaching in my class, so I was disappointed with what I got out of the book. But I could have overlooked that.

The second flaw is that the writing is sooooo bland. Normally, I read at least 100 pages a day and devour history books. This book took me at least two weeks to get through. I was making deals with myself like, "Just get through one chapter, and you can have a piece of chocolate." My mind just kept trying to skim constantly. The writing was not engaging at all.

I would have given this 3.5 stars if it had just been lackluster research, but the writing killed it for me and dropped it to 2 stars.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing in 1965 the Oxford don and Regius Professor of History Hugh Trevor-Roper stated that “Perhaps in the future there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none; only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness.” He went on to add that its past was “the unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque but irrelevant corners of the globe”. About the same time he was elected Fellow of the British Academy – it’s not as if his views on Africa were repudiated by establishment of British academia. Mind you, Trevor-Roper also authenticated the hoax Hitler Diaries in 1983, so perhaps he’s not the best authority. Except that his statements in the 1965 represented the orthodoxy of British, and arguably European, scholarly outlooks. Even now, 60 years later, for the most part histories of Africa are driven by the agency of the colonialists and imperialists from Europe – most commonly their systematic enslavement of the peoples of the continent in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

This is the outlook that Zeinab Badawi sets out to address and rebut in the compelling if problematic broad sweep over the continent’s past. There are three key factors that give the book its value. First, she deals with the continent as a whole, refusing to separate North (‘Arabic’) Africa from its central and southern (‘Sub-Saharan’) regions. The second disruption is her sources, where she draws heavily but not exclusively of Africa-based scholars and sources, including oral tradition and Arabic and Indigenous language sources – these voices change what is seen and recorded as important. The third key strength is the place she gives to women in the narrative, especially those women who exercised political power. This means that she paints a picture of the continent quite unlike the dominant vision of the ‘backward’ poverty stricken continent – even as she writes of places woven into the dominant Euro-centric history, especially Egypt of the Pharaohs where her view from the south – what is now Sudan but then was Kush and later Aksum – challenges us to see what we thought we knew anew.

The narrative is episodic, and is not designed to be comprehensive, meaning that there is a sense that this is 17 essays held together by being about the same continent. Yet this is not the only way to read this approach. Instead we have many different ways in to re-read and rethink, to look and discover the new, or to see that the traces and hints at pre-existing pasts in Euro-centric story are not only more complex that those histories suggest, but those pasts are available for us to find, uncover, and recount. Crucially, these are stories of resistance, agency, and autonomy. This is a valuable approach and one that is not uncommon in revisionist histories, making clearly the point that the narrative is much more complex than we’re often led to believe.

Crucially, Badawi has written for a broad audience – her target is most definitely not historians like me whose work engages with broader African histories. That does not mean the book is intellectually, academically, or conceptually naïve. In fact it is quite the opposite; this is powerfully decolonial text, disrupting the received version and loudest voices where Badawi sees herself as giving voice to, and being a conduit for, continental scholars whose work has little profile in the Global North and often in their home countries where contemporary state orthodoxy, in the wake of neo-liberal structural adjustment programmes, denigrates history and the humanities in favour science and technology driven development.

All this valuable points mean that my disquiet about the book feels a little churlish. Badawi concentrates the narrative on telling individual’s stories, giving in some ways the book a bit of a ‘Great Man’ feel to it. This approach, in part, makes sense especially for some of the earlier cases where sources are more incomplete, but in discussions of the book I have heard she makes clear this was a stylistic choice designed to make the text more engaging for her broad, general audience. Again, I understand that but it does come at the expense of broader, systemic, and structural insight. I recognise also that my style and approach is systemic and integrative, so in part this disquiet is preference and stylistic.

Even with this disquiet this is an important and vital text, pointing to the richness, depth, and complexity of continental history, a continent that, Badawi notes in the opening chapter with its focus on Lucy/Dinkinesh (as she is known in Ethiopia), we all come from. I can’t help but strongly recommend it as both edifying and relevant. Be prepared to be surprised: it is anything but darkness.

[JRT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author and journalist Zeinab Badawi’s “An African History of Africa” essentially converts her BBC “History of Africa” series to pages, as she highlights the broad strokes of African history, told from the mouths of African peoples. Her stated purpose is to continue the trend of upending false stereotypes and narratives concerning African societies and histories. The book does a good job of this, even where it falls short of providing more specific details concerning the many societies it examines.

While Badawi did discuss African pre-history, she missed an opportunity to bridge the gap between pre-historic North Africa during the “Green Sahara” period, and the foundations of the Nile Valley Civilizations of Kerma and Egypt. Much has been written about this, and its omission is odd and may be a product of Badawi’s unwillingness to discuss the thorny topic of the “race” of the architects of Nile Valley culture. Further, the book does not cover Dhar Tichitt at all, odd considering how much time it spends discussing North African history. These were missed opportunities to re-tether foundational African civilizations back to their African origins.

My favorite chapter was that of ancient Kush. Kush was a criminally underrated civilization with tremendous rulers (male and female). I love how Badawi detailed the power struggle that Kush and Assyria engaged in over Egypt and West Asia, demonstrating just how powerful and globally influential Kush was during its height.

Ultimately, the book does a good job highlighting African civilizations, but I don’t think it sets itself a part from any other the other general histories of Africa that have been written in recent years.

[John Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has for some time now been my goal to understand the history of humanity, and not just that of some so-called dominant groups. This is because I believe all our rich experiences can contribute to and feed off of one another. To that end, I’ve sought out stories about indigenous peoples, as well as other immigrant or minority groups in various countries around the world.
I Knew as soon as I came across this title that I had to read it. Badawi, narrating the audio in a slightly husky-sounding British-accented voice, takes us on a spin across the great continent of Africa that propels us through time and space at equal speed. We take a roughly counterclockwise trip as we move from ancient Egypt, down the west coast through what is now Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana, and way down into South Africa. There are jaunts to the east coast to explore slavery purpotrated by Arabsm and to the other side to examine the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But Badawi’s main aim with this work is to show that there was and is so much more vibrancy to African history than just those nastier parts, and that it very much connects with the history of our species on this planet. It’s one of the most impactful nonfiction works I’ve ever come across, and quite an ambitious but well-done project.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly the book I was looking for on African History. I have been watching Zeinab on YouTube for a couple years with the GHA (General History of Africa), so it was nice to get a whole book from her.

[Glenn Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is very hard to present 10,000 years (plus the millions of years back past Lucy's age) in one book. A helpful book, but lacks a great deal of depth.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre-test
(to be taken before reading this book)

How many of these Africans are you familiar with?

Ibn Battuta
Nzinga
Shaka Zulu
Cleopatra

If you only know Cleopatra and you love history, you need to read this book.

Author Zeinab Badawi sets out to discover the stories of Africa's past, and to do so, she researches by reading both old and new histories of Africa, by talking to prominent scholars of Africa, by visiting museums and sites of importance in Africa, by speaking to descendants of African leaders, and by exploring her own African roots.

[Yamil Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

TLDR: A must-read that reclaims Africa’s history from colonial narratives.


Zeinab Badawi’s An African History of Africa is the kind of book that makes you realize how much history has been hidden—or deliberately ignored. It’s a sweeping, well-researched account that not only highlights Africa’s rich and complex past but also challenges the way that past has been told. Badawi brings Africa’s history to life through firsthand research, interviews with local historians, and a deep dive into sources that rarely get mainstream attention. I came away from this book with a new appreciation for the continent’s empires, cultures, and historical figures—many of whom I had never even heard of before.

One of the most eye-opening sections for me was the chapter on the Kingdom of Kush. I had always wondered who the Nubian rulers were and where they came from, but their history has been so overshadowed by Egypt that I never got any real answers until now. Then there’s the Aksumite Empire—one of the earliest Christian kingdoms in the world, existing at the height of Roman power. Before this, I had only heard about Ethiopia’s Christian kingdom from the 1400s (thanks to Europa Universalis IV), but learning that a major African civilization was thriving during Rome’s expansion completely changed how I see the history of Christianity.

Another part that blew my mind was the section on the Phoenicians and their influence on North Africa. I had no idea that when they mixed with the Berbers in Morocco, they created the Punic culture—which means Carthage wasn’t just some offshoot of the Mediterranean world, but a uniquely African power in its own right. And speaking of Carthage, I loved the discussion about Queen Dido. Virgil’s Aeneid paints her as this tragic, lovesick woman, but Tunisian historians argue that she was a shrewd, independent ruler who refused to marry a Berber king. It’s a great example of how Western storytelling has distorted African history to fit its own narratives. On a personal note, I was fascinated to learn that the Carthaginian leader Hamilcar had a name so similar to mine (Yamilkal)—a connection to history I never expected.

The book doesn’t just focus on ancient history, though. It also takes a hard look at the transatlantic slave trade and its aftermath. One of the most shocking facts I learned was that when Britain abolished slavery, it didn’t compensate the freed people—it compensated their enslavers, to the modern equivalent of $25 billion. Even worse, Britain was still paying off that debt until 2015. Badawi also highlights how even after slavery was technically abolished, European nations continued exploiting African labor through forced work and colonial rule. The section on reparations really stuck with me, particularly CARICOM’s push for debt cancellation and development assistance. That, to me, is one of the best ways to actually begin addressing the long-term damage caused by slavery and colonization.

Another aspect of the book that stood out was its focus on the power of African women, particularly in the Asante Kingdom. In Asante society, the queen mother wasn’t just a symbolic figure—she had the power to choose the next king and provide political counsel. I loved the quote “It takes a queen to make a king” because it captures how deeply rooted women’s leadership was in African governance. The book also raises an important question: What is the point of preserving culture and traditions if they don’t improve people’s lives? This really resonated with me because it acknowledges the need to honor history while also making sure it serves the present.

Badawi also covers how enslaved Africans were “freed” and sent to settlements like Sierra Leone and Liberia, but instead of being given true freedom, they were essentially placed under colonial rule again. Liberia, for example, was founded by the American Colonization Society—not to help African Americans, but to remove free Black people from the U.S. because white Americans feared they would inspire slave rebellions. Even Thomas Jefferson thought it was impossible for free and enslaved Black people to coexist, which says a lot about how hollow many so-called abolitionist efforts actually were.

One of the most interesting linguistic facts I learned was how the word Africa itself came from the Roman name Ifrikiya, originally used for just North Africa. It feels like a small detail, but in a way, it foreshadows how Europeans later claimed control over the entire continent.

Beyond being packed with information, this book also gave me a massive reading list. Badawi references so many African scholars and historians whose work I had never encountered before, and I’m excited to dive deeper into their perspectives. The depth of research here is incredible, but what makes this book really stand out is how it re-centers African voices in telling Africa’s own history.

In the end, An African History of Africa makes one thing very clear: the future of Africa should be in the hands of Africans.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A broad introduction to African history, from an African perspective. It's a really interesting read, if at times it does suffer from trying to include too broad a stroke of history.

The bredth of history included often means that the book moves on too quickly, offering glimpses of really interesting periods of history but never really getting stuck into it, giving it a very quick pace that feels like a lot is being glossed over.

As it breezes through content sources often end up being "I went and spoke to this person, and they said..." and as the intention of the book is to shift attention to African perspectives, it would have been nice to see ofter sources or schools of thought from African scholars. That being said, the book is a great introduction to African history, and the focus on local sources and perspectives really does the history justice.

After this, I would definitely read a follow-up that is a bit more focused or other books going into more detail about the periods and events discussed.

[Rui Colaço · Rating 4 out of 5]

The project is extremely interesting, and the author clearly gives her best. However, the scope feels overwhelming — it’s simply too much for one book. Perhaps once African historiography becomes more consolidated and the author has spent more years immersed in the field, she can revisit this work and make it truly excellent. I hope she does.

For now, it’s a 3-star effort. I’m not particularly interested in personal anecdotes about conversations with Professor Z from Congo, or Director of the National Museum of (let’s say) Nigeria - I don’t think that’s the best way to introduce serious historical research, even if it’s intended to reach a broad audience.

Still, I’m giving it 4 stars overall, because African history matters, and it can’t wait forever to be made available to the public / the global audience it’s aimed at.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to have large chunks that basically boiled down to lists of monarchs and battles. that was largely inevitable, given what Badawi was trying to do, but it did not make very interesting reading for me (a white British person who was never that good at history of any country).

I did however find the African perspective on the last few hundred years very interesting. You hear a lot about the slave trade across the Atlantic and the effect on those who were enslaved in the Americas, but I had not previously read that there was also a slave trade across the Indian Ocean. I was also interested to learn what it meant to those left in Africa. I had also not completely taken in the continuing effects of colonialism.

I'm glad I read this book. It is good to have a new perspective on life.