Africa in History

by Basil Davidson

Prior to the original publication of Africa in History, the history and development of Africa had been measured by the European concept of "civilization," applying a Eurocentric approach to African art and literature. Basil Davidson's landmark work presents the inner growth of Africa and its worldwide significance, the internal dynamic of its old civilizations and their links with Asia, Europe and America, as well as the development of specific areas, tribes and cultures. From accounts of the days of the green Sahara and the great iron age, the earliest Portuguese colonization, the coming of slavery and the subsequent legacy of violence and mistrust, the growth of Islam in the north and the cults of the Congo, the sophistication of art and architecture, and the pattern behind social and tribal mores, the entire picture of the continent emerges. This revised edition reflects the recent astonishing changes in South Africa, including the release of Nelson Mandela.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 31, 1968

About the author

Basil 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.

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Davidson is a life-long student of Africa, and he gives a fascinating, deeply researched survey of the vast drama.

[Larry Lamar Yates · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must give homage here to this book and this author. More than any other individual, Basil Davidson set me on a course to more deeply understanding not only Africa, but what Africa meant to me as a white North American concerned about justice. I have no doubt that a lot of research has been done since to expand on and clarify, and even correct, what is in this book. I also know that Africans, not the least of them Cheikh Anta Diop, who I read soon after reading Davidson, have written their own history. But I not only would not know what I know today without having started with Davidson, I would not be who I am. I also express gratitude for The Liberation of Guiné, also by Davidson (Penguin Books, 1969). This book introduced me to the revolutionary thinker Amilcar Cabral. It also gave me my first glimpse into the complexity of societies that is West Africa, a major source of the culture of the United States of America.

[Carlos Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably a little dated - it's a field where new research yields fascinating results all the time - but this is a really great overview of African history. Definitely a good starting point for further research, and is essential reading for westerners or anyone suffering from Eurocentrism. Africa is painted in its huge diversity and historical richness, rather than than the one-sided (and frankly racist) portrayal that we are familiar with. Eye-opening.

[Temi Abimbola · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading this book I've come to the conclusion that I will no longer believe that humans began in Africa, it has definitely put me off accepting one of History's biggest Hoax of all time. (before reading this book i came up with this conclusion only 50% away but now fully convinced it's all a deception). [So far Ive read the first few chapters, I will give an update soon on the rest,

Even though Basil Davidson(RIP) meant well with his study, I respect him for his content for Africa, but I believe he needed to be more subjective (avoided unstable concepts)

I couldn't acknowledge this book as much as others would, but to me it lacked quality and sustenance, it wasn't unique enough.
The first few chapters I found were a disaster, you can tell the writer is very influenced by the Darwinistic views that we've all heard of (the evolution of homo-sapiens with their hominid cousins) which only allows their inspiration for writing this book to take a sudden trap to doom.

The talk of Evolution and the origins of human beings linked with Africa as the starting point, has definitely become an open amendment to other theories. Theories that can impact the ideas of racial differences.
Many Evolutionists are starting to relate more to their racist fore-fathers who take to claiming differences in ethnic groups and hence bringing up racial stigmas. (Yes that's exactly what I'm talking about, the idea that Africans may actually be less evolved than their Caucasian and mongoloid counter-parts) This is what I believe this book expresses.

Obviously the book doesn't go into much detail on those subjects, but the first chapter gave an indication of the African stigma, the title "Africa in History" became some what appalling to me, why not "African History" or "The History in Africa".

If you are a creationist (like myself) the first few pages would cause you to stop reading and place the book back on the shelf! But I advise you to continue reading for now, Basil Davidson who past away a few years ago is known for much influence in African History, I recently watched his documentary from 2 decades ago;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTr6J...

[AskHistorians]

This is a broad survey of African history/prehistory. The first edition is often considered the first culturally neutral attempt to document African history.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A GENERAL HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO AFRICA, PAST AND PRESENT

Basil Risbridger Davidson (1914-2010) was a British journalist and historian. He wrote in the Preface to the 1990 revised edition of this 1966 book, “When Nelson Mandela stepped free from his defeated jailers on 11 February 1990… an immense public… gave him their welcome and support… Mandela’s release was… a moment of affirmation in the record of Africa’s history, which has long been one of subjection to foreign powers… it was a moment to recall that the facts of Africa’s own history have always been… an entirely convincing denial of the mythologies of modern racism….

“What follows here is a general introduction to this world of knowledge about Africa’s record in the past, and about the background of the Africa we see today. It seeks to portray the basic themes that have shaped and informed the self-development of black peoples, and to body forth the essential unities of thought and experience that underlie the rich diversities of this vast continent’s cultural and social processes since ancient times.”

In the first chapter, he observes, “historical advances have swept away some old myths and established some new truths. The seductively agreeable belief so dear to nineteenth century Europe that all in Africa was savage chaos before the coming of the Europeans may linger here and there, but not among historians concerned with Africa… [or] among those who have looked at the evidence… Africa is now seen to possess a history which demands as serious an approach as that of any other continent.” (Pg. 3)

He explains, “human stocks in Africa have evolved from or alongside hominid types which had existed in Africa for an immense period of time, and … this evolution continued down the centuries until it eventually promoted civilizations of the highest value. These human stocks… We may be content to call all of them Africans, and the more so because recent analysis of blood groups has gone far to suggest that nearly all shared … the same remote ancestors… the once familiar attribution of the term ‘white’ to North African stocks (as of the term ‘black’ to other African stocks) is really little more than another mystification of the racist sort. All such categorizations should be dismissed. Consider only the strange case of the ‘Hamitic Hypothesis,’ another myth dear to the epoch of imperialism… it was preached that any signs of past progress among Africans must have been the fruit of outside intrusion… more exactly of ‘white’ intrusion from Europe… The ‘Hamitic Hypothesis’ was great nonsense. No serious Africanist believes in it or even the mere existence, then or since, of any people or culture definable as Hamitic.” (Pg. 12)

He notes, “If it now seems perfectly clear that the vast majority of pre-dynastic Egyptians were of continental African stock, and even of central-western Saharan origins, there is likewise serous dispute among the authorities even as to whether the hypothetical ‘dynastic race’ associated with the foundation of Pharaonic Egypt had come from outside Africa. These early populations undoubtedly included the descendants of incoming migrants from the Near East. But to argue from this that the vast majority of the inhabitants of old Egypt, not being ‘Negro,’ were therefore not African is as little tenable as to argue the same about the Berbers and the Ethiopians, whom nobody has yet proposed to erase from the list of African peoples. The old racist categories of ‘white’ or ‘black’ can indeed make no sense in this or perhaps any other connection… Whatever their pigmentation or physical appearance, the Egyptians of Pharaonic times were an intimate part of African history.” (Pg. 26)

He states, “Like the religions of Africa, the arts of Africa are not the crude imaginings of primitive men. On the contrary, they are the embodiment and statement of old and intricate speculations and traditions about the nature of the world and man’s possible place in the world. They are the literature, the holy books, the poetry of African belief.” (Pg. 65)

He acknowledges, “Iron Age Africa was clearly not a paradise. Yet to isolate its darker side as evidence of unusual cruelty or natural human inferiority would be even more misleading than to suppose that the European Middle Ages knew only racks and thumbscrews. If anything, the comparison between Africa and Europe is likely to be in Africa’s favor. Throughout the medieval period most African forms of government were undoubtedly more representative than their European contemporaries. Most African wars were less costly in life and property. And most African ruling groups were less predatory.” (Pg. 145)

He clarifies, “There is no doubt that this use of tied or wageless labor increased though for the most part only in the Muslim areas of the Western Sudan, after the fifteenth century… Muslim kings… accumulated wealth through wider use of slave labor… Yet these ‘wageless workers’… were seldom or never mere chattels, persons without rights or hope of emancipation. They might be bought or sold… Yet their condition was different from that of the African chattel slaves who would labor in the Americas… On the contrary, they were integral members of their community…These systems, then, were not ‘slave-based economies’ such as had existed in parts of Europe or Asia.” (Pg. 209)

He points out, “conventional historians… were at times the willing or unconscious victims of an extreme form of what may be called the ‘imperialist delusion’: the self-deception so powerfully at work among European peoples in justifying the colonial invasions and enclosures. This self-deception taught that Africa must be ‘saved from itself’ by the European imposition of control… None of this is to say that pre-colonial Africa was a kind of utopia, or that African peoples were not in need of new ideas or new structures of social and economic life. What it does me is that much of the accepted historiography of the southern regions… has to be read with a prudent skepticism as the product of special pleading by those who have wished to defend… this process of dispossession to which most of southern Africa’s peoples have been subject. It is only in recent years that historians in South Africa … have begun to question the accepted views of ‘white history.’” (Pg. 261-263)

He explains, “Nobody need doubt that by 1900 the greater part of Africa most urgently required a renovation in terms of industrial science, mechanical production and social relationships. But it was not the colonial system that provided or every could provide this renovation. Potent to destroy, the bearers of the white man’s burden proved helpless to rebuild… All that was achieved, in general, was a deepening of that very large crisis of change and transformation which much of Africa had already entered before the invaders came on the scene. The invaders… proved unable to resolve it. Nor, for the most part, did they try to resolve it.” (Pg. 317)

He says, “The years since [Kwame] Nkrumah [in Ghana] had convincingly demonstrated this harsh and difficult truth: various permutations of the ‘Western model’ had been tried, but they had not worked; and nothing stable had emerged since Nkrumah’s overthrow in 1966 by ‘Western-oriented’ army officers. Meanwhile the ‘Eastern model’… had produced no viable alternatives. Co-operatives had failed. State enterprises had done no better.” (Pg. 362)

This book will be of great interest to those studying African history.

[Yannick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Davidson focusses on the economic development, the migration flux, the trade routes and the power shifts that occurred in different African regions and civilisations. The book starts with the beginning of civilisation and goes on to give a regional focus to the histories described. I liked that Davidson highlights how rich and diverse African cultures have been, gives a detailed explanation of how 'Africa' came to be misunderstood by the early colonisers and how the misconstrued view of Africans was used to the advantage of the West in an inescapable race for resources. To the south-west of Africa I would have liked it if Davidson had dedicated more than a couple of pages, yet it was enough to give me the impression I now understand the main events that shaped the area.

[Nikolaos Papadakis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Δυστυχώς είναι ένα δύσκολο βιβλίο. Είδα υψηλές προσδοκίες διαβάζοντας το, τις οποίες δεν καλύπτει διότι δεν είναι συστηματικά οργανωμένη η ύλη του και, επίσης, θεωρεί ο συγγραφέας πολλά πράγματα αυτονόητα ίσως και δεν τα επεξηγεί. Ούτε καν ο μεταφραστής. Απουσιάζουν χρονολογικοί πίνακες και κατάλογοι προσώπων που θα βοηθούσαν πολύ. Δεν το συστήνω.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A one volume survey of an entire content’s history from the pre-history to the book’s publication covering the rise and fall of multiple states and empires, ethnicities, and cultures up to the last decade of the twentieth century is an ambitious project, and Davidson succeeds wonderfully in this summary overview. Starting with the scholarship of the previous three to four decades, he debunks the racist myth of Africa as a content of ignorant savages that needed to be saved from themselves by “civilized” intervention from the north. He also convincingly challenges the idea that the civilizations on the Mediterranean coast were significantly different from those of Sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, the desertification of the Sahara was the cause of civilization from the south to push north towards the delta of the Nile in Egypt.

Necessarily brief histories of the kingdoms and empires of Kush, Axum, the Berbers, are followed by the growth of trade along the western and eastern shore of the continent, the rise and decline of Nubia, Ghana, Kanem-Bornu, Mali, Songhay, and the impact of Christianity in Ethiopia and Nubia, and the larger impact of Islam on the rest of the continent. The development of what Davidson terms Mature Iron Age culture and the increase in trade across the Sahara and transoceanic trade on the eastern and western shores of the continent with Arabia, India, China, and finally Europe sparked trading stations that grew into immigrant settlements that gradually became a prelude to imperial conquest by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, and then by European empires in the 19th. This and the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were huge destabilizing impacts on native African society and civilization. From them followed depopulation and loss of land. Which resulted in whole populations fleeing from the encroachment and involuntary servitude imposed by the new white settlers. This, in turn, brought them into conflict with the people of the interior and with each other. Desperate people, deposed of land, freedom, and the historical basis of their culture combined with racism became the myth of ignorant savages that needed to be saved from themselves.

The struggle against colonialism, and its consequences from the late 19th century to its fall in the second half of the 20th century make up the balance of the book. The impact of two world wars, with Africans pressed into service by their colonial masters helped accelerate its demise but did little to heal the injuries that it inflicted on the continent’s population.

[Boognish3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I only rated this 3 stars, but I've really just begun reading it so that could easily go up or down. So far, there is a lot of information (it is a big continent so that isn't surprising) and I'm having a hard time following it. I'm certainly not a student of history, although I've always enjoyed learning about it. I've been to several countries in Africa and wanted to get a better idea of the continent's history. This author/book was recommended to me by a Kenyan so I thought it would be a good bet. I'll let everyone know more once I get further in to the book.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A used-bookstore find when I was looking for a one-volume history of Africa. Necessarily general, sometimes drily academic, but a good overview. General thesis: By the 1300s-1600s, many African societies had reached a point that required new social/political structures that went beyond traditional tribal or caste lines. Then the Europeans showed up. The old structures went away, replaced by rapaciousness and industrial-scale inhumanity. The Europeans withdrew politically but kept their economic hooks in, and Africans are stuck with the mess.

[Susan Webb · Rating 3 out of 5]

One can get lost in the many geographical and ethnic names, but this provides a rich, thought-provoking understanding of Africa's past and current situation. Originally published in 1966 and revised/updated in 1991, the book concludes with some thoughtful observations about the continent's future that remain perhaps even more relevant today.

[Ignatius Ibanga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Davidson again has demonstrated his depth of knowledge about African History in this thoroughly well researched book that vividly x-rays the ills and legacies of colonialism in black Africa. The author though a British national is an excellent scholar of African Historiography with unparalleled passion for the continent.

[Joshua]

One of the first books I bought as an adult. I read about five pages and haven't read any more. It goes along with my Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver phase.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good startingpoint with an excellent bibliography.

[Marsha]

--

[Daniel Kozik · Rating 4 out of 5]

good start

[Nick Harriss · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of mankind in Africa. It covers all periods and countries, so by default it is somewhat a broad brush. Highly recommended.

[Mat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry and a bit erratic, but it will fill in the details for many Westerners for whom much of Africa is either a blank page or a skewed picture, viewed through the prism of European politics.

[Ευθυμία Δεσποτάκη]

Κλείνω ετούτο το tab γιατί δε θα μπορέσω να ασχοληθώ με αυτό το βιβλίο για μερικά χρόνια ακόμη. Ίσως το ξανανοίξω αν και όταν ξαναπέσει στα χέρια μου κι έχω και την ανάκαρα να το ξαναπιάσω.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm enjoying this book quite a bit, the first modern, complete history of Africa in my book collection.

It's a nice overview, and I appreciate it's brevity which I think serves the topic well. My only complaint is that Davidson sometimes goes a little too far in defending Africa, to the point that his arguments sound a bit specious.

I get what he was trying to do given the period that this book was originally published, and I understand the sentiment, but if I could craft a dream book on Africa there would be no need to measure it against other regions of the world or get politics involved, we'd just get a plain assessment of African history.

All in all a well written, modern and fresh history on Africa.

[Heather Dubarry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bird’s eye view and very general, and rather dated now, I’m sure, since there’s been a lot more research done since the late 90’s when this edition was updated.
But there’s so much world history we aren’t taught in US schools that having a bird’s eye view isn’t a bad place to start at least.
Got very hard to read towards the end, because, well, the past reflected in the present? People don’t change apparently and the horrible things that were done in the past are still having repercussions today. And there were a LOT of horrible things.

[Halfcharmed]

dnf at pg 142. had to give it back to the library, might get it again later

[Ron Me]

I read the original version, and this is the only book I've read that presented anything like a comprehensive survey. I regret not having a later edition.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Davidson was the best historian Africa had for a very long time. But maybe Africa deserved someone better?

[Heather Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically, this is a DNF. I had to throw in the metaphorical towel around page 200. This is the first history book about Africa that I've read and it's a doozy. First written in the 1960s the style reflects as much. It's pure academic. So maybe not the first book I should have picked up to learn more on the subject. The four stars are because even if I can't understand exactly what the author is trying to explain, I can understand the intent and passion to educate the reader.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this ages ago. So this review is in retrospect.

Oh. Why wasn't this better. I so wanted it to be.

it took months to read (about 6).

I found it tedious, but I did persevere. I am not sure I would again.

When you are reading a book like this I think you need to ask yourself: I can only read another 1,500 books before I die. At a rate of 1 book a week. (assuming I still have the eyesight and mental capacity till I am very elderly)

Do I want this book to be one of them? Is it worth it?

If I asked that question now, I would say no and stop reading.

[Noah Cicero]

like

[Habeeb Akande · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pioneering work of its time, still a great source for African history