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Great Ages of Man
African Kingdoms - Great Ages Of Man, A History Of The World's Cultures
TIME-LIFE HARDCOVER HISTORY BOOK, EUROPE, IRAQ, EYGYPT
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1966
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235 people want to read
About the author
Basil Davidson
102 books76 followersBasil Risbridger Davidson was an acclaimed British historian, writer and Africanist, particularly knowledgeable on the subject of Portuguese Africa prior to the 1974 Carnation Revolution .
He has written several books on the current plight of Africa. Colonialism and the rise of African emancipation movements have been central themes of his work.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
From 1939, Davidson was a reporter for the London "Economist" in Paris, France. From December 1939, he was a Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)/MI-6 D Section (sabotage) officer sent to Budapest (see Special Operations Europe, chapter 3) to establish a news service as cover. In April 1941, with the Nazi invasion, he fled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In May, he was captured by Italian forces and was later released as part of a prisoner exchange. From late 1942 to mid-1943, he was chief of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) Yugoslav Section in Cairo, Egypt, where he was James Klugmann's supervisor. From January 1945 he was liaison officer with partisans in Liguria, Italy.
After the war, he was Paris correspondent for "The Times," "Daily Herald" ,"New Statesman", and the "Daily Mirror."
Since 1951, he became a well known authority on African history, an unfashionable subject in the 1950s. His writings have emphasised the pre-colonial achievements of Africans, the disastrous effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the further damage inflicted on Africa by European colonialism and the baleful effects of the Nation State in Africa.
Davidson's works are required reading in many British universities. He is globally recognized as an expert on African History.
He currently lives in Staffordshire.
He has written several books on the current plight of Africa. Colonialism and the rise of African emancipation movements have been central themes of his work.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
From 1939, Davidson was a reporter for the London "Economist" in Paris, France. From December 1939, he was a Secret Intelligence Service (SIS)/MI-6 D Section (sabotage) officer sent to Budapest (see Special Operations Europe, chapter 3) to establish a news service as cover. In April 1941, with the Nazi invasion, he fled to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In May, he was captured by Italian forces and was later released as part of a prisoner exchange. From late 1942 to mid-1943, he was chief of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) Yugoslav Section in Cairo, Egypt, where he was James Klugmann's supervisor. From January 1945 he was liaison officer with partisans in Liguria, Italy.
After the war, he was Paris correspondent for "The Times," "Daily Herald" ,"New Statesman", and the "Daily Mirror."
Since 1951, he became a well known authority on African history, an unfashionable subject in the 1950s. His writings have emphasised the pre-colonial achievements of Africans, the disastrous effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the further damage inflicted on Africa by European colonialism and the baleful effects of the Nation State in Africa.
Davidson's works are required reading in many British universities. He is globally recognized as an expert on African History.
He currently lives in Staffordshire.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
December 10, 2022
I enjoyed reading this. It's a good summary of Africa's great states, cultures, and contributions to civilization. It does a good job of explaining the functionings of sub-Saharan African culture and underlying religious practices --- which are predominantly animism.
If I have one gripe, it's that the book pays not enough time on one of the African cultures, Ethiopia, and its Orthodox Christian culture that likely gave it enough resilience and internal cohesion with which to resist being absorbed like the rest of Africa by Europe's colonial powers. More time should've been spent on that --- at least a chapter, in my opinion.
Overall, a good primer for introduction to Africa's great civilizations!
If I have one gripe, it's that the book pays not enough time on one of the African cultures, Ethiopia, and its Orthodox Christian culture that likely gave it enough resilience and internal cohesion with which to resist being absorbed like the rest of Africa by Europe's colonial powers. More time should've been spent on that --- at least a chapter, in my opinion.
Overall, a good primer for introduction to Africa's great civilizations!
January 2, 2023
Meh!
As the title indicates, this is part of another Time-Life series of books on a general theme. It isn’t clear whether its publication in the mid-1960s was in response to the growing Civil Rights Movement in the USA. It attempts to educate the interested reader (particularly Americans) about the diversity of the African continent's cultures and their impact.
It has all the beautiful and often helpful illustrations, photographs and graphics that the public came to expect from Time-Life publications. The British historian, Basil Risbridger Davidson, takes responsibility for the book and he is a curious choice for an American audience. He does a number of bows in the direction of the former British colony starting with pointing out that the African continent is three times as large as the continental USA. But a lot of the narrative has a British / colonial patina.
There are references to Dark Africa (definitely a colonial point of view) and astonishment either by the author or by his Euro-centric focus at several points. For example when he is discussing Bornu’s ‘fierce horsemen:’ “Arrayed in armor like medieval European knights, the cavalrymen of Bornu terrorized the central Sudan for more than 200 years, attacking inclose formation to the shrill sound of long war trumpets. As early as the 16th Century, Europeans had heard about Bornu’s yearly marches against weaker neighbors such as the Bulala people…When British explorers finally entered the Kingdom in 1823, they expected to disprove these myths. To their surprise, they discovered that the Negro knights, according to the British report, ‘were habited in coats of mail composed of iron chain, which covered them from the throat to the knees,’ and their richly caparisoned horses moved ‘with great precision and expertness,’ through intricate maneuvers. Even the greeting given to the British combined a strange kind of knightly courtesy with defiant pride. The horsemen rushed at the Europeans again and again in a series of mock charges, shouting, “Welcome” a gesture, wrote the explorers, which gave ‘the compliment…very much the appearance of a declaration of contempt for (our) weakness.’”
This shouldn’t be another “discovery” (in the manner that the diverse humanity of the “New World” were discovered by Europeans). The Bornu had carved out and defended a large part of central Africa for hundreds of years. They documented their lives and their history in their Girgam, a written chronicle.
This isn’t to say that the book is racist or author Davidson is racist. This is a fine first read or survey of pre-European contact African civilizations, but badly needs updating and I doubt whether Time-Life is going to spend any time on such a project.
2.5*
As the title indicates, this is part of another Time-Life series of books on a general theme. It isn’t clear whether its publication in the mid-1960s was in response to the growing Civil Rights Movement in the USA. It attempts to educate the interested reader (particularly Americans) about the diversity of the African continent's cultures and their impact.
It has all the beautiful and often helpful illustrations, photographs and graphics that the public came to expect from Time-Life publications. The British historian, Basil Risbridger Davidson, takes responsibility for the book and he is a curious choice for an American audience. He does a number of bows in the direction of the former British colony starting with pointing out that the African continent is three times as large as the continental USA. But a lot of the narrative has a British / colonial patina.
There are references to Dark Africa (definitely a colonial point of view) and astonishment either by the author or by his Euro-centric focus at several points. For example when he is discussing Bornu’s ‘fierce horsemen:’ “Arrayed in armor like medieval European knights, the cavalrymen of Bornu terrorized the central Sudan for more than 200 years, attacking inclose formation to the shrill sound of long war trumpets. As early as the 16th Century, Europeans had heard about Bornu’s yearly marches against weaker neighbors such as the Bulala people…When British explorers finally entered the Kingdom in 1823, they expected to disprove these myths. To their surprise, they discovered that the Negro knights, according to the British report, ‘were habited in coats of mail composed of iron chain, which covered them from the throat to the knees,’ and their richly caparisoned horses moved ‘with great precision and expertness,’ through intricate maneuvers. Even the greeting given to the British combined a strange kind of knightly courtesy with defiant pride. The horsemen rushed at the Europeans again and again in a series of mock charges, shouting, “Welcome” a gesture, wrote the explorers, which gave ‘the compliment…very much the appearance of a declaration of contempt for (our) weakness.’”
This shouldn’t be another “discovery” (in the manner that the diverse humanity of the “New World” were discovered by Europeans). The Bornu had carved out and defended a large part of central Africa for hundreds of years. They documented their lives and their history in their Girgam, a written chronicle.
This isn’t to say that the book is racist or author Davidson is racist. This is a fine first read or survey of pre-European contact African civilizations, but badly needs updating and I doubt whether Time-Life is going to spend any time on such a project.
2.5*
August 17, 2014
I read this partly as research for a project, partly out of curiosity as to how incandescent the period racism of a 1967 text on African Kingdoms by a capital W, capital G, White Guy would be.
To my surprise, it was actually pretty progressive and took pains to point out the flaws in many traditional ideas about African culture and history - including the perspective that Africa is just one large, monolithic culture, a single country as much as a continent.
There were a few rough edges, this still being a 1967 text by a White Guy, but I definitely came out the side feeling enriched by having spent the time and energy on reading this text.
To my surprise, it was actually pretty progressive and took pains to point out the flaws in many traditional ideas about African culture and history - including the perspective that Africa is just one large, monolithic culture, a single country as much as a continent.
There were a few rough edges, this still being a 1967 text by a White Guy, but I definitely came out the side feeling enriched by having spent the time and energy on reading this text.
January 18, 2008
This belongs to that glorious Time-Life series of books from the mid-'60s called the Great Ages of Man. It is a good place to start for the beginner who wants to get a basic grasp of African history and culture. African Kingdoms definitely does a good job at giving the reader a good strong impression of African life, particularly in the pre-colonial era (although the last chapter does touch on colonialism). Unfortunately, it only gives you an impression without a lot of the details you might want from a good basic survey. A survey this ain't, but the impression of African life it leaves you with gives you a good foundation from which to launch onwards to something more detailed and comprehensive. The illustrations and photos are wonderful, and really add to the book.
October 30, 2017
This book just came my way. I am well aware this is old information for 21st Century but I am uninformed about the ancient history of Africa (except perhaps Egypt) and that is what this is mostly about. I have followed the hard news about Africa over the recent decades including accounts of travelers and this is not what I want to improve my knowledge on here.
Much bad news is coming from Africa in the recent decades, and in 2017 even weekly. These actually seem worse and on a grander scale than this history, even if we include the history of slavery practiced by the white man on Africans over the past centuries. This history book was published in 1966 which seems like a long time ago. Bad news has been constant since that time from the African continent. Slavery within the mining industry, digging for gold and tantalite (Coltan) for use in our electronics, involving people of all ages, women and children being poisoned by mercury and lead in Congo (DRC), largest country in Africa geographically, only a little smaller than Alaska and Texas combined. It also has raging civil wars with three different movements and two different militias, child soldiers. Guns are talking in Africa.
This history covers a broad area. The chapter on African arts clarifies the misconception European had when they first viewed masks from Ivory Coast and Congo around 1900 and called it “primitive” as if it was an expression of children or people incapable of expression and understanding of their emotions.
(I believe the term “primitive” is still around in reference to some arts.)
The author writes that dancing is the most important art to Africans and drums were the source of the rhythm. This is not easily described in words. I came across an anomaly regarding African drums. I visited the New York World’s Fair in 1965 as a young person and was attracted to the Kenya exhibit which featured a drummer Od Ogatu described as “The World’s Fastest Drummer”. This is description on the 45 RPM record which I still have. The titles of the tunes are “Mad Bongo”, “Virgin Rite”, “Frenzy”, and “Wild Ecstasy”. Perhaps this language was intended to the 1960’s general public but this history is also published at that time and is more informational about Africa’s talking drums than the Kenyans were then.
Much bad news is coming from Africa in the recent decades, and in 2017 even weekly. These actually seem worse and on a grander scale than this history, even if we include the history of slavery practiced by the white man on Africans over the past centuries. This history book was published in 1966 which seems like a long time ago. Bad news has been constant since that time from the African continent. Slavery within the mining industry, digging for gold and tantalite (Coltan) for use in our electronics, involving people of all ages, women and children being poisoned by mercury and lead in Congo (DRC), largest country in Africa geographically, only a little smaller than Alaska and Texas combined. It also has raging civil wars with three different movements and two different militias, child soldiers. Guns are talking in Africa.
This history covers a broad area. The chapter on African arts clarifies the misconception European had when they first viewed masks from Ivory Coast and Congo around 1900 and called it “primitive” as if it was an expression of children or people incapable of expression and understanding of their emotions.
(I believe the term “primitive” is still around in reference to some arts.)
The author writes that dancing is the most important art to Africans and drums were the source of the rhythm. This is not easily described in words. I came across an anomaly regarding African drums. I visited the New York World’s Fair in 1965 as a young person and was attracted to the Kenya exhibit which featured a drummer Od Ogatu described as “The World’s Fastest Drummer”. This is description on the 45 RPM record which I still have. The titles of the tunes are “Mad Bongo”, “Virgin Rite”, “Frenzy”, and “Wild Ecstasy”. Perhaps this language was intended to the 1960’s general public but this history is also published at that time and is more informational about Africa’s talking drums than the Kenyans were then.
June 8, 2019
I skimmed this volume so I am not entitled to review it. It is a rather pictoral edition with good art pictures. It has renewed my desire to read one of Mr Davidson's works: The Lost Cities of Africa. Most interesting are the sub-sahara cultures of which I am very ignorant. The editor points out that many African cultures prized social organization rather than material and technological advances. While they may strike the westerner as backward or primitive, their societal order was more advanced than Western countries. Of interest is Timbuktu, the city of books. I am looking forward to reading more about Africa.
June 25, 2020
The question we need to ask ourselves is how much we know about history of this vast continent of Africa. I would say we hardly know the history other than the history of Egypt and a bit of colonialism. This book is a good introduction to the history of Africa. Got to know so many new things about Africa! The books has nice photos and also a nice map detailing the kingdoms.
The book was a bit of a dry read and the chapters did not completely flow into each other. Some chapters felt a bit disconnected.
The book was a bit of a dry read and the chapters did not completely flow into each other. Some chapters felt a bit disconnected.
May 28, 2020
I hadn't heard of 2/3rds of these civilizations and I live in Africa.
December 31, 2020
Should be required reading in school.
March 31, 2025
Magical writing that brings the history alive
June 6, 2022
The British-born journalist Basil Davidson’s 1966 edition of the book, African Kingdoms, about pre-Colonial Africa is for the series of Time-Life Books’ Great Ages of Man. Before his death in 2010, Davidson “received honorary degrees and appointments from many universities, including Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Turin, Ghana, and California, and was also decorated by Portugal and Cape Verde for his services to their history” to quote the obituary by Victoria Britten of The Guardian (U.K.) newspaper. Davidson’s book, African Kingdoms is dated, but it is still worth reading if one is interested in the historiography of Africa. To put the date the book was written in perspective, in 1966 Botswana and Lesotho achieved independence that year from Great Britain. African Kingdoms is readable. The book has a beautiful layout. A photo essay follows each chapter. Each chapter has images within the text. A Timeline is at the end of the book. I agree with the Goodreads reviewer named Oliver Brackenbury even though it was dated I did not regret spending the time reading the book, African Kingdoms. I feel like the book, African Kingdoms was an early forerunner of Henry Louis Gates Jr’s 1999 book and television series, Wonders of the African World. I found the Obituary by Victoria Britten of Basil Davidson for The Guardian (U.K) from July 2010 useful in writing this ‘review’.
March 3, 2012
Strong history, only limited by the fact that the book itself is practically an antique
At the time of this review, this book is 41 years old. It was published in 1966 by Time-Life books as part of a series of books entitled "The Great Ages of Man."
Of course, several of the photos of contemporary Africa are now hopelessly outdated (but you can choose to look at the book itself as a piece of history and look at those pictures as photographic evidence of historical Africa) and any references to contemporary Africa are not accurate - no mention of any of the tragedies that continent has witnessed over the last 25 years - starvation, genocide, AIDS, etc.
Fortunately, those references are few and far between. Mostly this is a well-written, accessible history that taught me more than the half-dozen or so textbooks that I read in college as part of my coursework.
Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...
At the time of this review, this book is 41 years old. It was published in 1966 by Time-Life books as part of a series of books entitled "The Great Ages of Man."
Of course, several of the photos of contemporary Africa are now hopelessly outdated (but you can choose to look at the book itself as a piece of history and look at those pictures as photographic evidence of historical Africa) and any references to contemporary Africa are not accurate - no mention of any of the tragedies that continent has witnessed over the last 25 years - starvation, genocide, AIDS, etc.
Fortunately, those references are few and far between. Mostly this is a well-written, accessible history that taught me more than the half-dozen or so textbooks that I read in college as part of my coursework.
Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2012/...
July 15, 2020
There's so many informations. I love it...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews