A History of West Africa: An Introductory Survey

by John Donnelly Fage

Introduction to the History of West Africa has become established as the best introduction to West African history available. In this new edition half the book has been completely rewritten and the remaining chapters have been extensively revised. The new edition is about one-third longer than the previous edition. The opening chapters have been drastically altered in composition to take account of the changing perspectives of African history and two new chapters have been included dealing with political developments in lower guinea in the slave trade era and political developments in the interior of West Africa in the nineteenth century, The remaining have similar titles to those in the previous edition, but all have been looked at critically and much rewriting has been done.

Genres: History

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

John Donnelly Fage was a British historian who was among the earliest academic historians specialising in African history, especially of the pre-colonial period, in the United Kingdom and West Africa. Educated at Tonbridge School and Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1939, Fage's studies were interrupted by World War II. After service in the Royal Air Force in Southern Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) and elsewhere in Africa, he returned to Cambridge in 1945, where he earned his doctorate four years later

Fage taught at the new University College of the Gold Coast in Accra, Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana) in West Africa from 1949 until 1959, when he returned to the United Kingdom to take a post at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He moved to the University of Birmingham in 1963 to establish the Centre of West African Studies (CWAS) which he directed until his retirement in 1984.