Africans: The History of a Continent

by John Iliffe

In a vast and all-embracing study of Africa, from the origins of mankind to the AIDS epidemic, John Iliffe refocuses its history on the peopling of an environmentally hostile continent. Africans have been pioneers struggling against disease and nature, and their social, economic and political institutions have been designed to ensure their survival. In the context of medical progress and other twentieth-century innovations, however, the same institutions have bred the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen. The history of the continent is thus a single story binding living Africans to their earliest human ancestors. John Iliffe was Professor of African History at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of St. John's College. He is the author of several books on Africa, including A modern history of Tanganyika and The African A history, which was awarded the Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association of the United States. Both books were published by Cambridge University Press.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, School, Anthropology, Reference, World History

388 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 1995

About the author

John Iliffe is Professor of African History at St. John's College, University of Cambridge.

Reviews

[Jaime · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crap

Didn't finish - I have a degree in African history and this was utter garbage, so clearly biased and devoid of even a pretence otherwise. You can't write a history of Precolonial sub-Saharan African societies and entirely discount societies that used oral rather than written record keeping. And Illife does this throughout the book, because oral records are "unreliable" in his view, but he's happy to speculate in other places when it suits him - There's plenty of "probably" and "maybe" explanations for advancement so long as he can use that maybe to attribute knowledge to Muslim or Christian non-Africans visiting whichever area he's talking about.

[Ed Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iliffe has a daunting task: how do you tell the history of a continent with as much diversity as Africa and do it within a manageable number of pages? Moreover, how do you tell the tale in such a way that both the good and the bad can be visible? Africa is a complex, diverse, often frustrating, fascinating place.

Iliffe has to paint with broad brushes. Sometimes he understates issues, such as the atrocities of the Belgian Congo. Other times he spends much time in discussing issues such as AIDS. While a reader will always want more of some things and less of others, Iliffe presents a history of Africa which is both comprehensive and readable.

[Paul Andrus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has about the right level of detail for me. I found it readable, interesting, and surprisingly lively is spite of an epic subject. I appreciated the factual approach, with little to no politics.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Information is interesting, but it is hard to read, and very difficult to follow.

[Thomas Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book in 2001 when I was in New York to see the William Blake exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I started reading it but then was interrupted for several years (something that sometimes happens with the books that I'm reading, for various reasons), and just now finished the book! I'd say that it's strength is its comprehensiveness and compactness. It's weakness is that it just tries to do too much and loses most of the tone color of the continent (he threw in the occasional personal account or piece of literature but it wasn't nearly enough to surmount the piling on of statistics, data, and the complexity of social change over 3000 years. But you've got to hand it to Iliffe for trying! In reading the chapter on the colonial era of the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century (last month), I got kind of steamed that he hardly commented on the pain, savagery, hardship, and slaughter committed by the European powers on the African people (I had read King Leopold's Ghost, which gave me a vivid sense of what that was like in the Congo). If he mentioned it, it got lost in all the facts and statistics. On the other hand, I found his narrative compelling for the way it weaved together so many different movements, influences, factors, and trends affecting the course of history in each region of the continent. There was often factors that I tended to neglect in putting most of my attention on the rebellion I remember from my childhood, when Patrice Lumumba and other Africa leaders made the news everyday. For example, the role of population in taking up valuable resources that might otherwise have been used for development, and the population rise was linked to advances in medical care, which makes medical care a mixed blessing if it helps promote overpopulation, which leads to poverty, crime, starvation, and more. I guess I did like his systemic approach, where you could get a sense of the many linkages between social forces that promoted, suppressed, or otherwise affected the course of history in each region of Africa.

[AskHistorians]

This is a very serious candidate for the most concise easy to digest book on the whole of Africa. Covers everything from precolonial Africa to the current issues that the continent faces. Illiffe writes succinctly and caters to readers who may not be familiar with the topic, but manages to maintain a high level of academic authority.

[Caleb Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful, concise synopsis of African history. I enjoyed it but read it a while ago and don't remember that much.

[Toni Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mucha info, una narración entre caótica y apasionada y, sobre todo, condiciones materiales en un libro imprescindible.

Qué coméis

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took long but it was worth it.

A very very general overview on Africa's history from Stone Age to the AIDS crisis.

[Bernhard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Insgesamt habe ich fast in unterschiedlichen Versuchen fünf Jahre gebraucht, um dieses Buch zu beenden, was mir einerseits eine Herzensangelegenheit und andererseits eine gewisse Qual gewesen ist.

Zuerst einmal hat das Buch ein hehres Ziel, nämlich eine gesamtheitliche Betrachtung des Kontinents Afrika und seiner Geschichte, so sie menschliche Geschichte betrifft. Dieses Ziel soll in der Tradition der longue durée erreicht werden und so die großen Erzählstränge afrikanischer Geschichte beleuchten. Und zuletzt, obwohl es sich neutral in seinen jeweiligen Einzelbetrachtungen hält, möchte es die gesamtafrikanische Bevölkerung - unabhängig von Ethnie, Religion und Ideologie - als sehr anpassungsfähigen, überlebensstarken und umtriebigen Teil der menschlichen Gesamtbevölkerung zeigen, der sich gegen einen besonders volatilen Kontinent (in Form der Natur) und gegen Oppression von innen und außen zur Wehr setzt. Dieser Ansatz begründet eigentlich mehr als die angegebene Bewertung.

Doch die Umsetzung ist meines Erachtens überhaupt nicht gelungen. Grob orientiert sich der Autor an den Himmelsrichtungen, um innerhalb seiner übergeordneten Themen (Besiedlung, Sklavenhandel, Kolonisierung, Freiheitsbewegung oder bspw. AIDS) eine Ordnung zu schaffen. Diese Ordnung wirft er jedoch immer wieder durcheinander und innerhalb der Themen reiht er Fakten an Fakten an Fakten, allerdings in durchweg eher einfacher bis spröder Prosa, viel schlimmer jedoch: ohne weitere Ordnung und ohne Kontext.

Weil also die Aufarbeitungen ohne Kontext und fast immer ohne weiterführende Erklärungen sind, sind es quasi nur Spiegelstrichsätze, die einfach unter ein Oberthema sortiert werden, aber es werden weder ihre Interdependenzen noch ihre Gründe untersucht, sodass die großen Erzählstränge afrikanischer Geschichte, selbst wenn sie uns bekannt sind, kaum Entfaltungsmöglichkeit erhalten.
Dadurch wirkt das Buch konfus, zusammengestückelt und lässt sich nur schwer lesen.

Mit tatsächlichem Mehrgewinn lässt sich das Quellenverzeichnis nutzen, aber auch der beigefügte Index löst die fragmentarische Aufarbeit des Themas nicht leichter nachvollziehbar und nutzbarer werden, sodass das Buch selbst für den interessierten Leser nur mit Mühe nützlich gemacht werden kann.

Ich werde für meine persönliche Aufarbeitung afrikanischer Geschichte noch viele andere Werke hinzuziehen müssen und hoffentlich zugänglichere und aussagekräftigere als dieses.

[Jack Kruse · Rating 2 out of 5]

NOTES
We used this book for a grad school class and it's a pretty good read but could use about 30 pages of charts and maps (at least). I have more thorough notes on this book on my blog For Unofficial Use Only.

Chapters 1-6

**Precolonial history is important but very little of this history is written down.***
***Pay attention to Iliffe's theme of social organizations and horizontal structures.***

Questions: with his methodology--what are you most/least confident about?

- Population is the most significant theme/framework for the author
- In West Africa with trade you have a tendency to overexpand
- In East Africa it's production.

- Polygny is at one level rational but on another it's an enduring source of conflict

- Ethiopia has a long enduring history with Christianity as a state religion; among highlanders especially there's still a large number that identify themselves as an ancient Christian state.
They are also the only society to have avoided colonization (except for Italy for 7 years from 1938-1945)

- Islam expansion spreads across North Africa more forcefully, whereas it filters more gently down the east and west coasts (slowest on the west coast)
- Islam is more effective in pre-existing polygamous societies.
- Animist religions in West Africa are perhaps more amenable to Christianity in many ways because of compatible overlaps such as replacing numerous deities with saints etc...

Chapter 7
Questions:
What about the idea of slavery's acceptance culturally? vs. the Arab slave trade?
What caused slavery? Demand overseas or existing institutions?
What's the relationship today between Africa and biggest slave partners?
What's the relationship between state building and enslavement?

- "Secondary empires" were prevalent from slave trade (they depended on the market from guns for example)
- Slave trade => peaks decades later for East Africa in the 1800s whereas this had already peaked for the Atlantic Slave trade. Perhaps the effects of the slave trade was worst in the East because of how rapid, violent and intense the peak of the slave trade came on.
- Matrilineage helped Atlantic slave trade because they could steal villages/people--sell their men and absorb their women.

- 19th century:
Central: trading revolution
South: military/competition/modernization--at least in the organization
West: Religious revolution
East: late impact of slave trade and its impact to authority
- Zulu expansion/condensing efforts led to a withdrawal of population from South African interior that opened it up for later Afrikaners.
- Abolition of slavery just accelerates it elsewhere: Sokoto Caliphate has 1/3 slave population

Chapters 9-10

Questions:
- What is the story for the African people- infrastructure or population? Which drove which at which point?
*Initial railways not for economic reasons necessarily but for military and transportation of personnel...this gave way to reduced trading costs and increased trading along rail lines--an indirect and beneficial effect
- What was racism's impact on colonial administrators?
- What is the role of overpopulation pressures to the continent?
- What's the role of the literature of adventurers like Stanley?
- How are missionary efforts tied to education (and is it different) between France and Britain?

- British are more economically focused whereas perhaps the French are more (broadly) strategically focused
- Divergence of interests between countries and between homeland administrations and local governors on the ground
- 3 schools of thought:
Colonialism was destructive/changed everything
It changed very little because Europeans couldn't control much
Iliffe is in between, looking at the aims/desires of Africans and Europeans separately but in
parallel
- Indirect rule seeks to create bureaucracy in African communities...so choosing a leader from them steals that african leader's legitimacy

Chapters 10-13

Early independence:
Questions:
- How did ruling classes respond to state that they inherited?
Early response was patrimonialization since most of them inherited useless political infrastructures.
- Counterfactual: What would have happened if there hadn't been a Cold War that funded and stabilized the continent initially (no borders moved etc...)
One could compare the parts that were more and less affected by the Cold War.
Research/thesis: Examine the level of Cold War influence. But this can be difficult when you look at francophone countries less affected by the cold war who received significant French economic support.

- Professor: Cold War patronage might have been the only thing that prevented widespread anarchy and violence in the short term
- No ruling classes were in a position to think long-term
- Russian influence served as a counterbalance to European influence. Previous colonial powers were hesitant to abuse African countries because they didn't want to push countries toward Russia (which happened in some places).
- Role of single party regimes and army
"Army did not intervene in politics, they were invited in"

South Africa
Questions:
Thesis/Research : Examine the role of historical apartheid on current military structure/effectiveness and foreign policy.
Thesis/Research: Has circumcision rose among infants since fight against AIDS?

- Story of South Africa is gold but also the size of the settler class. They've been there for 200 years...they're not from anywhere else.
- You have the pre-existing conflicting between Afrikaaner settler class and British colonial
Afrikaner interests are generally agricultural
- Doesn't address the foundations enough...look at comparative colonialism. This is closer to South American colonialism.
Role of access to land plays a pivotal role
- South Africa they talked about an economy of gold and maize (play on germany's iron and rye). It's a national capitalist economy in a way that don't exist elsewhere in Africa.
*Interesting role between African population, colored/Indian, and white population.
- Eventually ANC will have to change because now it's both the labor and business party
*18th century is when `colored' classification began
4 classifications: European, Colored, Indian and African
- Africaners tended to be poorer and more rural and Brits tend to be more urban and business types
- System is still in place that allows people to migrate from elsewhere to farm and work.
*This migrant worker economy (long term mobility) is a huge driver or HIV (you see the same thing happening in Cote D'Ivoire which also has a migrant worker economy)

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was poorly written, and fairly difficult to read. Part of the error is the authors, but a big part of this is the editors fault. There are numerous poorly written sentences, and overall the writing style is a massive barrier to understanding. It is extremely hard to follow, and lacks cohesion, overview and context. Reading it is a painful slog. There is also some historical misinterpretation - the British wanted Muhammed Ali to reduce his army not because really it 'interfered with their ambitions' but in reality, because they wanted to support the Ottomans. So that is a bit of a mis-characterization of British intentions.

There is good content, but the author failed to make it into a good package. It needed more focus and more trimming. Ultimately this book will hopefully pave the way for future author's to make a better book.

This book is not without merit, as if you are driven to read about Africa, this is not useless to help you to understand more, but its more work than it should be.

[Ed Stoddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is general history of the continent is packed with insight. I read it because I was interested in Iliffe's take on how Africa's natural environment has impacted the history of its peoples. Along the way, I have certainly learned a few more things about this fascinating region. Written over a decade ago, Iliffe understandably devotes considerable space to the AIDS crisis. Many of the worst-case scenarios on that front have thankfully not come to pass, especially now as Africa grapples with a new global pandemic.

[Jenna W · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the history of Africa. Maybe a little to detailed for my interest level but certainly not a bad read.

[Ryan Enser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history of Africa brought me out of my ignorance of what has been happening on that continent.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Iliffe’s 2017 Africans: The History of A Continent is based on the idea that the dynamics of the human population have been the overarching themes shaping African history from human evolution until the Arab Spring in North Africa in the early 2010s. The idea of Iliffe’s book, that outside of the country of Egypt until the 20th Century the African continental history was shaped by the idea of a harsh environment that was settled by a relatively small number of people. Even Egypt followed this trend until the late 19th Century. On the last page of the book, Iliffe writes that “demography, so often at the heart of Africa’s history, would remain at the center of its future” (344). I thought his argument about how plague weakened North African countries demographically and therefore economically in the early 19th Century, led the region to be colonized by Europeans more easily than it would have been otherwise, a convincing part of his argument (172-173). Another example, of Iliffe's demographic argument, is in French Equatorial Africa and Gabon. This case both supports Iliffe’s argument and could offer several other interpretations. The population of French Equatorial Africa and Gabon fell due to the introduction of gonorrhea in those areas, but certainly, the instability and the violence caused by the introduction of the colonial capitalist system also led to population loss (226-227). In the case of French Equatorial Africa and Gabon in the early colonial period, population loss was an effect of history not a cause of history. To Illife’s credit in terms of his thesis, the loss of population in that region of Africa probably drove history and created a vicious cycle. Therefore, the example of French Equatorial Africa and Gabon may support Iliffe’s argument. To Illife’s credit, his central thesis stimulates ideas about overall themes of African history and could be useful in a global history course. On re-reading this book, I think this book is an excellent overview history of Continental Africa in a single volume.

[Anders Moeller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iliffe attempts a daunting task, namely that of - concisely - telling the story of an entire continent. Sacrifices obviously have to be made along the way, so it has a necessary effect of frequently leaving the reader wanting more. The biggest downside to the book is that its brevity often leads to dry syntax which can get boring after a while. Nevertheless, Iliffe has done a great job of creating a comprehensive and concise history of Africa, and deftly demonstrates his main theme of demographic change (as the primary motivator of political, social, and geographic change) throughout the book. I particularly appreciated that most chapters were split into sections detailing the economic, political, social, and religious changes of each time period and region.

[Adrià Rodríguez]

A very conservative approach (he even does not mention the USA and CIA incidence on Africa in whole book!) and a chaotic writing. If you want to learn about Africa’s history you might better read Basil Davidson works.

[Marsha]

Called "superb" by William Easterly --

[Julia]

Read ch. 8-10

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Neema]

how can i say my opinion about the book without reading it???

[Tricia]

Really great. Natural and human history, woven together.

[Nranger7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well written history on Africa