Great Kingdoms of Africa

by John Parker

A groundbreaking, sweeping overview of the great kingdoms in African history and their legacies, written by world-leading experts.
 
This is the first book for nonspecialists to explore the great precolonial kingdoms of Africa that have been marginalized throughout history. Great Kingdoms of Africa aims to decenter European colonialism and slavery as the major themes of African history and instead explore the kingdoms, dynasties, and city-states that have shaped cultures across the African continent.

This groundbreaking book offers an innovative and thought-provoking overview that takes us from ancient Egypt and Nubia to the Zulu Kingdom almost two thousand years later. Each chapter is written by a leading historian, interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including oral histories and recent archaeological findings. Great Kingdoms of Africa is a timely and vital book for anyone who wants to expand their knowledge of Africa's rich history.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, World History, Ancient History, Audiobook, Education

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 16, 2023

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Reviews

[Richard Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important contribution to the body of pre-colonial histories of Africa, the book walks the reader through the origins, political evolution, and cultural achievements of a selection of indigenous African empires lost to many in the mists of the European characterization of the “dark continent”. Read the book and you will marvel at the rich history of Africa.

[JRT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Kingdoms of Africa is a tightly woven account of the history of statecraft throughout ancient, medieval, and “pre-colonial” Africa. Different authors told briefs histories of the formation of various prominent states in East, North, West-Central, and Southern Africa, weaving together themes of African sovereignty and consent, along with the centrality of spirituality in maintaining rule and nationhood.

A central point throughout the analysis is that the formation and structure of kingdoms were generally dictated by environment and geography. That is what characterized the differences between ancient Nubian and Egyptian statecraft, as monsoon rains dictated the pastoral states in Nubia, while annual flooding dictated the sedentary agrarian states of Egypt. These differences ultimately gave way to different forms of statecraft—such as the loose confederation by consent (Nubia), and the strict hierarchy of coercion (Egypt). I wish the book would have spent more time on the Kingdoms of ancient Nubia, particularly Meroe. When compared to how the book traced almost the entire history of Ethiopia from ancient times to the 1970s, focusing only on ancient Kerma did a disservice to the legacy of the great Nubian civilizations. Nevertheless, I appreciated the detailed description of how statecraft in ancient Egypt developed, and was particularly intrigued by the connection between agricultural development and securing provisions for living and dead kings who needed sustenance in the afterlife.

The book did a very good job detailing Western African statecraft, beginning with the “imperial legacy” and “vocation” of the Western Sudanic empires. Here, Ghana, Mali, and Songhay took center stage. From there, the book detailed the formation and development of the Yoruba, Edo, and Akan states, and ultimately ended with the rise and fall of the Zulu Kingdom. I appreciated the focus on oral tradition in explaining how these states rose, and I especially enjoyed the focus on how African rulers employed a version of “soft power”—via the connection to African spirituality—to maintain the legitimacy of their rule.

[Mbewe Liwanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

My discovery of this book was serendipitous: Amid a short visit to Vienna, under the careful and enjoyable guidance of a dear friend and Viennese native, we entered a wonderful, antiquated bookstore (Shakespeare & Company). It was here that I stumbled onto Great Kingdoms of Africa. It is somewhat fitting that I found a book about various African kingdoms and empires in what was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Contemporary historical writing on Africa tends to focus on the colonial and pre-colonial, giving those with a casual interest in the continent the perception that Africa’s history, or, at the very least, the most interesting parts of it, begins with the arrival of Europeans in West Africa. That could not be farther from the truth. However, as a layperson not trained in the study of history, I must confess that I have struggled to find good literature on precolonial African states. However, such literature does exist, as evidenced by Great Kingdoms of Africa. The book is the sum of nine historians exploring the rise of some of Africa’s great kingdoms and dynasties. From the Solomonic dynasty in Ethiopia to the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa, the book features the histories of kingdoms from North, East, West and Southern Africa. To my delight, it also explores in some detail many of the great Islamic kingdoms in West Africa, as well as the Buganda in East Africa.

Admittedly, these histories are not conclusive, nor are they meant to be. In my view, the book provides first and foremost a great introduction to the many pre-colonial African states. When viewed in that light, it does an excellent job of giving readers an overview of the universe that exists on an understudied continent. It provides several comprehensive examples of statecraft over the course of the past millennia or so. By far, the most interesting theme explored in the book is the notion of the monarch, whether it be a king, chief, or queen. The reader learns of the various ways in which the office or institution of the king (and in this book, it was often, ‘king’) was constructed and evolved over centuries, and the idiosyncrasies with which different African kingdoms, with innovations adapting to their unique political and geographical realities, engaged in state- and kingdom-building. As John Parker put it:

“[The book] contribute[s] to an emerging picture, which stresses the creative nature of political power, the ongoing dialogue between that power and the broader culture from which it emerged, and the coexistence of political hierarchies with other sources of authority.”

In Great Kingdoms of Africa, you learn about the assiduousness with which the Solomonic Emperors constructed the administrative and Imperial wonder that was the Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, or how through myth, dialogue and military conquest, the office of Asantehene (the Asante king) in modern-day Ghana was moulded into a sacred role. However, despite the variety of kingdoms and states explored, the book emphasises the idiosyncrasies of each state examined.

By learning not only the colonial or post-colonial histories of contemporary African states, but also their pre-colonial pasts, one can better understand the meaning of seemingly baffling events and moments. Especially in our current times. Take, for example, a dramatic scene on 29 June 1960. King Baudouin of Belgium, while being driven through the streets of Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) on his way to the inauguration ceremony of the Congo’s independence from Belgium, had his ceremonial sword snatched by Ambroise Boimbo. With the artefact in his hand, Boimbo jumped and danced in jubilation, generally leaving commentators puzzled regarding the motivations behind his ‘antics’.

Boimbo, a member of L'Alliance des Bakongo (Alliance of the Bakongo, a.k.a. ABAKO), a political party that served as an ethno-religious organisation for the Kongo people in the now-Demoratic Republic of Congo (note: despite, the name, the Kongo people are one ethnicity in a country, the DRC, that has over 250 different ethnic groups. Further, ethnic-Kongo people are found both in the DRC and Angola). However, the Congo’s pre-colonial history provides much-needed context. Cécile Fromont, in the Great Kingdoms of Africa chapter on the Kongo Kingdom, suggests that Boimbo’s actions were a homage to the great Christian King Afonso I (also known as Mvemba a Nzinga, reigning from 1509 to late 1542 or 1543). Afonso I is best known for his efforts to transform the Kongo Kingdom into a Catholic state, as well as instituting important administrative and social reforms. Boimbo, like Afonso I with Christianity, “appropriate[ed] an exotic emblem” (i.e., King Baudouin’s sword) to spearhead a period of reform and renewal. In the DRC’s case, independence.

I must admit, given that this is an edited book, it is sometimes repetitive, but I did not mind that too much. Other reviewers/readers complain that the book is too academic, using language that is not immediately accessible to the reader. I disagree with this criticism somewhat. Though the book is at times dense, the use of ‘technical’ (i.e., which presumably is a smokescreen for some readers complaining about the use of African terms like using Asantehene instead of ‘king’) is helpful, and admittedly it does require the reader to focus a little bit. Still, the book, in my opinion, is largely accessible to a general audience, but it will take the average reader a while to go through properly.

Moreover, despite the breadth of the book, I feel that the book was nevertheless too focused on West African/Sahelian history, and nowhere near enough exploration of Central and Southern African kingdoms (with the exception of the Zulu Kingdom).

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and rate it a strong 4/5. No doubt, I will return to it in the near future.

[Wilco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am of two minds about this collection of essays edited by John Parker. Should I rate it more on its job as a primer to African History or on nature of African Kingship it wishes to investigate as per the introduction?
It does a decent job as a primer into 9 different African Kingdoms for people unfimiliar with "pre-colonial" African history (The Colonial period being considered by this collection to truly have started during the Scramble of Africa). Some of the chapters are certainly written expecting the reader has some understanding of the broader context, and can be a bit overwhelming in the terminology used. But one gets the broad strokes and acts a jumping off point to other sources. It should be noted some of the writers of the chapthers are better at leading the reader to the critical information, or are less repeative.
However, the introduction from John Parker, wants this collection of essays to be a deep disscusion on the nature of Kingship in Africa and not necessarily an introduction to African Kingdoms. With a approx 30 pages for each Kingdom and a good chunk devoted to the broadstrokes of the history of that kingdom; there reamains a paucity of pagespace to delve into the exact nature of Kingship. And none of it is done in a compartive manner which would help illuminate key differences to readers who are unfimiliar to the subject. To take one example the description of the Gwelt system in the Ethiopian section just sounds like European feudalism (just with fancy terms), and not even with extra steps. It is this lack of comparisions to more well known types of Kingships let alone with other African kingships that is the major drawback of this book. One could imagine comparisions to the other kingdoms discussed in the book, but then the book would almost certainly have been written by one writer and not 10. Despite this shortcoming, some of the chapters are more focused on the central premis of the book and therefore the nature of Kingship in that chapter is more lucid.
So I ask myself, how to rate this book. As a primer to unitiated, it is a important jumping off point to "medieval" Africa since too many books focus on post-Scramble Africa. But at its own aims, it is lacking slightly. I would have rated this a four if the introduction was not as loud about the drive to investigate African Kingship. Thus, Great Kingdoms of Africa is more for the lay audience than anyone that has a more in depth understanding of these kingdoms.

[Book Post Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I used to think, until fairly recently, that the methods available to historians of the distant African past were of a different sort than those within the reach of their European counterparts. As a citizen of a country once colonized by the British, I felt it was perhaps impossible to know of an African past without looking at it through the meddlesome empires of Europe.

This perspective is, in a sense, based on an incomplete conception of time. The fact that most African nations entered the modern era upon independence from their various colonizers led retrospective interpreters to categorize African history in a tripartite fashion, pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial, situating colonialism as the apogee toward and away from which all historical events led.

What changed my perspective—and lifted the fog of ignorance—is the recent book Great Kingdoms of Africa, edited by John Parker." -Emmanuel Iduma

Read the full review here: https://books.substack.com/p/review-e...

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book providing a history of Africa through a study of its pre-colonial kingdoms. The collection of essays, edited by English historian John Parker, covers nine separate kingdoms spread across the whole of Africa’s geography and history, from Ancient Nubia through the West African gold kingdoms to the Zulu of the early 19th century. Instead of a chronological history of the continent, it explores the similar themes in the history of each kingdom to show how geography and cultural interactions developed the political structures of the various regions. The book makes a compelling case that the memories and history of these pre-colonial kingdoms continue to shape the politics in the modern countries that share their heritage. I was especially interested to learn how connected the African continent was to the societies of both the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans, long before the era of Western European colonialism began in earnest. This is a great book for anyone wanting to better understand the history and cultures of Africa.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

for a while, I have been looking for books that delve into the history of Africa pre-colonization. I’ve gotten bits and pieces of it mostly from translations of Arabic travel narratives. So I was looking forward to this book.

As always with these types of edited books, the writing quality varies significantly. Of course, so do the sources available—one of the reasons there are few non-academic books on pre-colonial Africa. The tenuous history of oral narratives means it’s difficult to make any claim with authority. At one point, an author has to rely on the rate of linguistic divergence to make claims. Sigh.

While it was practically required to have a chapter on ancient Egypt, this felt less necessary than many other chapters about less well-documented kingdoms such as Hausa and Yoruba. Some of the middle chapters become a slog to get through, like the Solomonic kingdom of Ethiopia and the Yoruba and Benin chapters. But then you get to the final two chapters on the Asante and Zulu kingdoms, which are excellent.

Frustrating but worth reading.

[Jordi Martinez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book with a very uncommon topic, so I could not but take it from the bookstore shelves at first glance.

The book is a collection of essays about the history of past African kingdoms. Its biggest weakness is that the authors of these essays are likely scholars who know a lot about the subject but whose writing skills are mediocre to say the least. This makes reading the book a disappointing experience for you would have loved seeing such an interesting and infrequen topic exposed by a touching writer.

In other words, reading this book you will learn a lot about past facts you are exposed to likely for the very first time in your life. However, the actual experience of gathering this information out of the text is quite painful.

To compensate for such a hard contents, likely, the editors decided to offer a very beautiful edition.

[R.C.]

This book reads very much like a history textbook, and it's definitely not an introductory class. The book's focus is not so much on the kingdoms (as groups of people) as it is of the political office and power of African kings. This means there's less info about the various peoples and how they lived and much more about the dates/places of battles, who succeeded whom, how kings got and showed their financial/military/religious power, political transitions, etc. There are very few "stories" in this book - it's more a history book's recitation of political facts. If you're a historian, I'm sure this is great. If you're a casual reader without much knowledge on this subject, just looking for an engaging and informative nonfiction book about ancient African history, I'd say look elsewhere.

[Sam Bright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the chapters I think are written for people with more background knowledge on some of these kingdoms but I really loved this book - especially it's focus on kingdoms all over the continent prior to European colonization. Discussions on religion, specifically Islam and it's introduction of a written language that allowed oral traditions and history to be written down for the first time was some of the most interesting stuff in this book. It also did a good job acknowledging that some of the history we base our knowledge off of is only told from the literate or from colonizers (not mutually exclusive by any means). Archeological findings are sometimes all we have to go off of for before certain times.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been hoping to pick up a book much like this for a while: A history of African states, not dominated by either anthropology nor archaeology nor European accounts from the colonial era. There is of necessity some of all of these things, and a single volume necessarily touches only small parts of the total history, but I feel I learned a lot more about the contours of history on the continent than I ever had before, as well as a hint of the current debates among scholars.

[Gabriel Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting

A very interesting book. The author looks at a number of African kingdoms and shows how they differed; and how much they were a function of indigenous development and tradition – in contrast to the view of colonising Europeans, who assumed that they had to be inspired either from North Africa or from Europe.

[Maarten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great topic. Mediocrely written.

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not without value, but oppressively scholarly- lacking any and all verve. If you you’re not aware of this stuff and interested in it already, this certainly won’t help.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book with a single chapter on an African kingdom. I would certainly like to know more about the kingdoms mentioned.

[QuiAudetAdipiscitur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would echo Maarten's review below - "Great topic. Mediocrely written". The book suffers from erring too much towards an academic writing style versus one of popular history. The book is a good introduction to Africa's rich history outside of Western colonialism and post-colonialism; however, a more approachable writing style would have been much more effective in introducing the topic to a wider audience.

[Edie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating study of the many kingdoms that ruled around African. The author mostly discusses the political history which can make the book a little dull. But learning about these many advanced civilizations is enlightening and should shake any misconceptions about the continent.

[Susu · Rating 5 out of 5]

An overview of African kingdoms - a broad and rich topic - this book focusses on the establishment of kingship within societies. Based on expertise - formulated as popular history - a balancing act that should servce as an eye-opener on the rich and diverse history of the continent

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