Ancient Ghana and Mali

by Nehemia Levtzion

Studies in African History - 7: Ancient Ghana and Mali

Genres: History, Africa, Ghana

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Noel Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

book #2 of 2024: Ancient Ghana and Mali (1973) by Israeli scholar of African history, Near East, Islamic, and African studies, Nehemia Levtzion. I know, I know…an Israeli?? all I can say is, if you have recommendations for ancient history books on Africa by African authors, I’m all ears. I do have Civilization or Barbarism: an Authentic Anthropology by Cheikh Anta Diop (supposedly the culmination of his work) and a few others lined up, but Levtzion’s book was an interlibrary loan, so those get first priority: return dates aren’t very flexible. this was a *very* hard to find book and at first I was mad at readers who aren’t giving older works, esp on history, a fair shake, but then I kept reading…. the first 100 pages are a very detailed history of the royal succession of the various kingdoms in West Africa in ancient to medieval times. I read books on ancient civilizations reasonably frequently and this was pretty dry, even for those. after that, I had some hope because the author began addressing slightly more anthropological topics, like trade routes and practices, but I think he held himself to a standard that nearly every sentence must have three or more town or kingdom names &/ names of people and groups running around at the time: it was endless word salad, impossible to track, though I did recognize many of the names of people and places. so, if you’re very interested in the names and dates of royal and notable everyone and where they ruled in this place and time, I have the book for you! as someone who’s always mostly interested in the anthropological side of everything, it was somewhat rough going. that said, the writing was consistently clear and erudite, but not overly formal. also, it was a superb summary of the observations of the Arab travel writers at the time and they covered a lot of territory and took a lot of notes, so that research and distillation alone is priceless. of course they were far from objective, but that’s a huge issue with history and anthropology from all eras and sources. the book was only 220 pages and a very small format, at that. curiously, the Israeli author was *very* pro-Islam and, sadly, like most non-native authors I’ve read, not particularly supportive of traditional African beliefs and practices. so…only my second book this year!! hoping to get through a few more a bit faster soon. 4/5: it was exceptionally well researched, just not really what I was looking for, though I’m still glad I read it, if for nothing else to be able to recommend it to someone who is looking for those kinds of details. I hope to meet such people someday.