History of Africa

by Kevin Shillington

This fourth edition of this best-selling core history textbook offers a richly illustrated, single volume, narrative introduction to African history, from a hugely respected authority in the field. The market-leading range of illustrated material from prior editions is now further improved, featuring not only additional and redrawn maps and a refreshed selection of photographs, but the addition of full colour to make these even more instructive, evocative and attractive. Already hugely popular on introductory African History courses, the book has been widely praised for its engaging and readable style, and is unrivalled in scope, both geographically and chronologically – while many competitors limit themselves to certain regions or eras, Shillington chronicles the entire continent, from prehistory right up to the present day. For this new edition, both content and layout have been thoroughly refreshed and restructured to make this wealth of material easily navigable, and even more appealing to students unfamiliar with the subject.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, Academic, Textbooks, World History, Historical

993 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Dr Kevin Shillington is an independent historian and biographer. He is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and holds a PhD from SOAS, University of London. His recent books include History of Africa, 4th edition (2019) and Patrick van Rensburg: Rebel, Visionary and Radical Educationalist (2020).

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shillington's tome races through the whole tale of Africa, sketching the big picture, but often with little time for more than names and dates. At many points, such as the 1960 crisis in the newly independent Congo, he exposes the bias of previously prevailing accounts. The emphasis is deliberately positive, emphasizing people's accomplishments or heroic struggles against adversity. But I couldn't help but be freshly shocked by the longstanding traditions of businesspeople or politicians treating their customers with naked contempt. For example, we have this typical item concerning Sudan in the mid-1800s: "The European, Egyptian and Sudanese merchants based in Khartoum ... found it more profitable to raid than to trade and the Egyptian government placed no restrictions on their activities on the upper Nile" (p. 281).

Across Africa, the companies and governments of the both colonial and post-colonial eras launched massive schemes, supposedly for the development of Africa: "But in practice the system was widely open to abuse, mainly because it was motivated purely by short-term private profit ... the companies concentrated on the violent expropriation of the people and their natural resources" (pp. 332-333).

The armies and police forces evicted farmers from their land, enforced economic and political monopolies, and crushed any customers who protested. Instead of trying to earn their customers' patronage, these business and political leaders commonly took whatever they wanted by violence.

Shillington does offer glimpses of a different emerging reality, where businesses and governments have to earn rather than enforce support from the customers. We catch sight of community-based development and women's initiative in places like Botswana, Kenya, or Burkina Faso.

The whole story has both hopeful and disturbing implications for the global future of corporate and political power. How does a "for profit" system work when the leaders of great institutions have little but contempt for their workers and customers, and how does that change?

[b0yc0tt amaz0ñ · Rating 4 out of 5]

morgen examen, kruis je vingers voor me

[Brent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shillington's "History of Africa" serves its purpose; namely, an introduction and historical survey of the history of Africa from ancient to modern time. The historical accuracy of the text - especially concerning the time before the bronze age - is seriously dubious, and moot at best. The scholarly work is suspiciously absent concerning such periods of ambiguity, and Shillington doesn't have any problem taking only one side of the historical research and offering it on a silver platter as historical fact, and not just mere conjecture.

Other more modern eras are adequately dealt with, such as the numerous Muslim A.D. empires throughout Africa at various times. All in all, an OK survey text: I would not recommend this as the first text to a layperson interested in Africa history.

Brent M. McCulley (10/17/13)

[diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

uni reading📖📖

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best instructive book on African History yet. Detailed, researched, clear; a good African history book.

[WaldenOgre · Rating 3 out of 5]

虽然全书信息量很足，但一来年代跨度太大，二来覆盖的地域太广，所以形式上的通史，其实最后就变成了各个章节相对独立的断代史。读起来颇有割裂之感。

另一个问题是，作者凯文·希林顿的视角多少有些“非洲中心主义”的意味。虽然它看似是对于传统上“欧洲中心主义”的自然反应，但难免又落入了钟摆另一端的窠臼。在很大程度上，这种史观和身份政治的思潮有着极为相似的逻辑。我始终相信，用一种中心主义去回击另一种中心主义，既容易在现实层面上陷入另一种困境，更重要的是，它也放弃了一种在智识上的更高追求。

诚然，非洲这片大陆的悠久历史还没有得到足够的重视，但它也的确值得更好的审视与讲述。

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tend to dislike history textbooks in general because they try too hard to cover too extensive of a swath of history without getting into any of the personality behind why things happened. I do admit that I would have been completely lost in reading more personal accounts of African history had I not had this to kind of form a chronological framework on which to place things. I was irritated by the fact that an extensive part of the first chapter warned against the problems of looking at history as a series of epochs because it ignores the way that Africa really developed and tends to be Eurocentric, but that the book then continued to describe things in as epochs for the remainder.

[Huyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

clear and instructive.
It's good names are starting to ring bell. I found the early history of Africa fascinating and it's amazing this part of the world has been largely ignored and cut off from European history books. sometimes, the details get quite tedious.
I'd love to have seen Shillington explore the impact of poor "expert" advice to African leaders and the role of the IMF in the African economies a little bit more.

[Wale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, highly instructive and readable -which cannot be said for most works of this genre. A textbook that does not read like one; rich in information, maps, pictures and illustrations; all features that I am sure will make this book a constant reference point for anyone who reads it. A highly recommended starting point for anyone interested in the continent and its experience.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed reading this book cover to cover. It contains excellent maps in particular. Shillington explains the different regions and eras of African history very well, in a way that is easy to understand for someone unfamiliar with the content. The first ten chapters cover history (and a lot of archaeology and human geography) before the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The slave trade, colonial period, and independence era are all dealt with in great detail. This book does not skimp on the details. It is primarily focused on the big picture of state building, major technological and economic developments, and state-to-state interactions. Because Africa is so large and diverse, Shillington breaks things down by moving across regions and cultural zones within the continent across a time period. Things started to get really dizzying once I got to the colonial era, trying to keep up with all of the different names and shifting maps. I learned a lot from this book and plan on utilizing aspects of it to aid me in incorporating Africa more into my world history teaching.

[Joaquín · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

It is an incredibly hard task to summarise the history of a whole continent. The book does it and, more importantly, without a colonialist view/prism. Sometimes, thought, the book goes into some details that I would have skipped in order to allow the reader to retain less but better new information. The book is thought to be support material for a university course so it seems unfair to judge it on its own so much. I'm glad I read it.

[grace]

read for class

[Kara Daliha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get this book. Wonderfully comprehensive, great illustrations, insightful and honest input from the editors. How history is written truly tells us what to think of the past and present. This history is important as is the way it is told.

Americans shouldn't have to take a college course to learn African history. I learned so much from this text that I know just learning American history I was cheated from knowing this that should've been taught. African history is world history. If you're of African or European descent you need to read this text.

[Joost · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very through and enlightning overview of Africa's history up to the present day.
The main foci seem to be Africa pre-1800 and 1800-1900.

[David Withun · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[John Bohnert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a great deal about Africa from reading this book.

[Samra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for this continent. Africa does have such a grand history.

[晓木曰兮历史系 Chinese · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes to the distant African continent, what do you think of first? Is it the vast expanse of the African savannah, or the ancient Egyptian pyramids, or the highly recognizable black race. Ordinary people's knowledge of Africa is probably limited to this. For people who have no chance to understand African history and culture, the history of Africa is like a blank sheet of paper. However, as the origin of mankind, the African continent has a very long history. As a non-professional reader, it is enough to understand the history of the African continent from the Stone Age to the European colonial era in a simple and clear way. .


"General History of Africa" ​​(Fourth Edition) is a history book with a strong foundation and a lot of graphic information. Starting from the Stone Age, starting from the perspectives of society, economy, politics, and religion, it restores the history of an African continent. The real development process and historical trajectory. In recent years, historians have paid attention to the question of European colonists' intervention in African history and culture. It also puts the colonial African culture in the historical process of Africa itself, which can also avoid some unnecessary negative arguments.

The book is divided into 11 chapters. It is possible to clearly see the history of Africa in each different period from the perspective of chronology, allowing African history to flow in the long river of time to this day. Let us walk into history to understand the story that happened in the vast Africa.

As one of the origins of mankind, grasslands with a broad view can promote the earliest human animals to go out of the forest, develop the ability to walk upright and use tools with both hands. This is the unique advantage of the African continent. Nowadays, through fossil and DNA analysis, it can be concluded that Africa was the origin of early humans. After growing up in Africa, humans eventually dispersed to all parts of the world. The use of tools and the domestication of livestock have allowed humans on the African continent to develop rapidly. With the settlement of nomads, the concept of hierarchy and theocracy gradually appeared in human society, and the "Ancient Egypt" civilization was born.

The introduction of ironware promoted the production and collection of Africans. It also gave rise to two countries that have ruled for centuries. Over the long years, the citizens of these countries destroyed the local environment and eventually led to the collapse of society. The huge kingdom disintegrated. This is still a lesson for today’s society.

Politics and religion can never be separated, and Africa is no exception. The spread of Islam and Christianity in Africa has become an important factor affecting African politics and wars, and it has also promoted the unity of African people and created trade. Positive effect. In addition to the influence of religion, the influence of the military is equally important. The increase in population, the increase in the role of trade, and the sheer chieftain system allow us to clearly see what efforts Africa has made after the population reaches a critical point.


When it comes to the modern history of Africa, slavery and the slave trade are inevitable. This book does not evade the history of Western countries’ plundering and encroachment on Africa. At the same time, it does not treat Africans as simple victims. Countries have even become accomplices in the slave trade. The sinful slave trade lasted for three centuries and caused tremendous damage to the entire African economy and culture. With the awakening and reform of African countries, the European history of plundering and enslaving Africa will also pass away, and the dream of dividing Africa will eventually be disillusioned.

Although it took a lot of blood and tears to gain political independence in Africa, the final victory was finally achieved. With the intervention of the socialist countries headed by the Soviet Union, the colonial government gradually decolonized and was liberated. Africa has gradually found a stable political road and has moved on to a road to economic recovery and prosperity.

As an important ally of third-party countries in Africa, China spends huge amounts of infrastructure and other investment in Africa every year. I hope that the African continent can, with the help of many societies, completely remove those unfair titles and let this birthplace of mankind. The mainland regained its glory.

[Josh Buermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a concise survey of the broad sweep of history on Earth's second largest continent and the birthplace of humanity that has to cover everything from Homo heidelbergensis to the Arab spring I don't know if you could ask for much more. I appreciate how Shillington has continued to update the text from the literature and annotated where he's had to revise it for a sense of how the historiography has changed since the first edition in 1989.

There were times when I felt it could have benefited from more maps showing who was neighboring whom at given times, as it's pretty easy to lose that comparative context as sections bound across vast expanses of time and then back up as they switch regional focus. The color schemes of the maps were also a little confusing, with topographical features in some being demarcated in the same (frequently hard to distinguish, due to a strangely limited palette) shades as political and cultural ones.

Most of all I'm deeply disappointed at the link rot in an edition that was just published last year, as all the external links to the publisher website for "further discussions" go to some new publishing conglomerate's home page. It feels unfair to dock a star for a business decision, but all Bloomsbury has done is subtract value from its acquisition.

[Craig Fishbane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an enjoyable survey of African history. It did a good job of sketching the rise of Egypt, the development of societies along the Mediterranean and the formation of medieval kingdoms and empires such as the Kush, the Mali and the Songhai. Ancient (and often lost) cities such as Meroe, Timbuktu and the Great Zimbabwe are brought to life in all their glory. As we approach more modern episodes in African history, Shillington tends to editorialize more than necessary, and occasionally gets bogged down in excessive details. But, overall, this was a fine introduction to the rich and varied history of an enormous continent.

[Austin Barselau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shillington’s History of Africa breezes through the political history of Africa from several centuries BCE to the modern day in just under 500 pages, with most of the focus on post-19th century developments. This tome covers the evolution of the continent from its hunter-gather and pastoralist societies, early states, religious movements, transatlantic slave trade, European conquest and exploitation, colonial rule, the wars of independence, and the formation of modern states and the associated challenges of self-rule. All in all, a highly recommended introduction to the tragic and tumultuous history of the African continent.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of the progress and destruction of Africa. After living in Africa for nearly 40 years, we have often wondered about the current state of many countries. This history is replete with the lack of good governance that has plagued much of Africa for more than 1000 years. Then, add the colonizing and pillaging of African resources by European nations and others, and we arrive where we are today. I have always been optimistic, but I must admit that this book left me feeling a little hopeless. When will it change?

[James Angus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Africa few know

Very long but comprehensive and illustrates the amazing extent of African history. Very convincing on the disgraceful behaviour of all western and Arab nations involving themselves in Africa.

[Ivaylo Dimitrov · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't imagine more boring way to tell the history of anything

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The maps are wonderful!

[Ammar Elgoni · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book for every African library

This book helped me understanding what is going on in this period of time. It’s easy to reed, updated and rich of sources.

[A.D. Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep dive into the African continent.

Cleared up many misconceptions.

This is a beefy book. Take your time.

[Carol]

mining revolution