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West Africa before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850
This is a survey of pre-colonial West Africa, written by the internationally respected author and journalist, Basil Davidson. He takes as his starting point his successful text A History of West Africa 1000-1800 , but he has reworked his new text specially for a wider international readership. In the process he offers a fascinating introduction to the rich societies and cultures of Africa before the coming of the Europeans.
272 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 1998
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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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June 17, 2013
Basil Davidson. West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850. New York: Longman, 1998. 236pp.
A leading scholar of West Africa for nearly five decades, Basil Davidson wrote West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850 (1998) in an attempt to appeal to a wide, non-African audience interested in the complex history of pre-colonial West Africa. Davidson excels in concision, succeeds in informing, but fails miserably in presentation. Lacking a strong argument aside from pointing out that West Africa’s history is both critically important and little known, Davidson’s book no doubt works well as a reference guide for students just diving into the subject, but serves few other purposes. Its applicability to undergraduate courses even seems a bit suspect only because Davidson’s bland style and troublesome organization call into question whether any undergraduate could successfully complete the book without falling asleep.
While Davidson officially breaks the book into sixteen chapters, he also seems to have informally organized the book into two larger sections. The first, comprising chapters 1-8 explores the formation and dissolution of critical imperial and cultural groups from the early centuries AD until the eighteenth century. The Ghanaian, Malian, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu empires form the subjects of the early chapters as Davidson analyzes how these imperial powers took control of trans-Saharan trade. Each empire built complex political systems to govern its holdings and most were eventually brought down by a combination of internal strife and outside raids. The narrative for each is similar in that strongmen initially gave rise to great empires. Generations later, with large political systems maintaining order, the empire overreached, which in turn led to political downfall. His seventh chapter on “Early Senegambia” proves massively disappointing as Davidson spends only eleven pages on the subject and never quite gets a handle on any groups in the area before awkwardly moving on. This and the next chapter on the peoples of the Niger Delta are supremely underdeveloped, but become a bit clearer when Davidson reintroduces these areas in his discussion of political changes wrought by the development of the Atlantic slave trade in chapters 13 and 14. These regions apparently experienced even more political and cultural change than other areas in West Africa during the peak years of the Slave trade.
Part two comprises the remaining chapters (9-16) and becomes more thematic and, problematically, repetitive as Davidson rehashes and tries to expand on themes that ran through the preceding geographically-oriented chapters. Beginning with the interesting paradox that West African peoples moved forward economically and culturally even as they stood still technologically, Davidson then moves into talking about the development of religion, the arts, social thought, politics, and economics. Religiously the continuing spread of Islam introduced new written forms of communication, which allowed for the creation of ever more complex political systems to govern increasingly stratified societies. European contact in the sixteenth and seventeenth century brought Christianity into the fold and shifted trade routes from South-North to East-West as political upheaval in North Africa disrupted caravan routes, making trade with Europeans on the west coast both easier and more desirable. Increasingly dependent on the Europeans for trade goods, West Africans had a hard time resisting the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade as the trade balance shifted increasingly in favor of Europeans even as various African groups maintained political and cultural control of the African interior.
A nice and concise survey, Davidson’s inelegant writing style offers a “just the facts” approach, but ultimately fails as he struggles to organize his series of occassionally interesting insights into any kind of meaningful metanarrative. Useful, but wholly uninteresting, Davidson’s book can serve as a basic reference guide to West Africa’s history and little else. Each chapter, with the exception of the two on Senegambia, at least work as primers for further study into various areas of West Africa’s history.
A leading scholar of West Africa for nearly five decades, Basil Davidson wrote West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850 (1998) in an attempt to appeal to a wide, non-African audience interested in the complex history of pre-colonial West Africa. Davidson excels in concision, succeeds in informing, but fails miserably in presentation. Lacking a strong argument aside from pointing out that West Africa’s history is both critically important and little known, Davidson’s book no doubt works well as a reference guide for students just diving into the subject, but serves few other purposes. Its applicability to undergraduate courses even seems a bit suspect only because Davidson’s bland style and troublesome organization call into question whether any undergraduate could successfully complete the book without falling asleep.
While Davidson officially breaks the book into sixteen chapters, he also seems to have informally organized the book into two larger sections. The first, comprising chapters 1-8 explores the formation and dissolution of critical imperial and cultural groups from the early centuries AD until the eighteenth century. The Ghanaian, Malian, Songhay, and Kanem-Bornu empires form the subjects of the early chapters as Davidson analyzes how these imperial powers took control of trans-Saharan trade. Each empire built complex political systems to govern its holdings and most were eventually brought down by a combination of internal strife and outside raids. The narrative for each is similar in that strongmen initially gave rise to great empires. Generations later, with large political systems maintaining order, the empire overreached, which in turn led to political downfall. His seventh chapter on “Early Senegambia” proves massively disappointing as Davidson spends only eleven pages on the subject and never quite gets a handle on any groups in the area before awkwardly moving on. This and the next chapter on the peoples of the Niger Delta are supremely underdeveloped, but become a bit clearer when Davidson reintroduces these areas in his discussion of political changes wrought by the development of the Atlantic slave trade in chapters 13 and 14. These regions apparently experienced even more political and cultural change than other areas in West Africa during the peak years of the Slave trade.
Part two comprises the remaining chapters (9-16) and becomes more thematic and, problematically, repetitive as Davidson rehashes and tries to expand on themes that ran through the preceding geographically-oriented chapters. Beginning with the interesting paradox that West African peoples moved forward economically and culturally even as they stood still technologically, Davidson then moves into talking about the development of religion, the arts, social thought, politics, and economics. Religiously the continuing spread of Islam introduced new written forms of communication, which allowed for the creation of ever more complex political systems to govern increasingly stratified societies. European contact in the sixteenth and seventeenth century brought Christianity into the fold and shifted trade routes from South-North to East-West as political upheaval in North Africa disrupted caravan routes, making trade with Europeans on the west coast both easier and more desirable. Increasingly dependent on the Europeans for trade goods, West Africans had a hard time resisting the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade as the trade balance shifted increasingly in favor of Europeans even as various African groups maintained political and cultural control of the African interior.
A nice and concise survey, Davidson’s inelegant writing style offers a “just the facts” approach, but ultimately fails as he struggles to organize his series of occassionally interesting insights into any kind of meaningful metanarrative. Useful, but wholly uninteresting, Davidson’s book can serve as a basic reference guide to West Africa’s history and little else. Each chapter, with the exception of the two on Senegambia, at least work as primers for further study into various areas of West Africa’s history.
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