Great African Reads discussion

Our nonfiction topic in the first quarter of 2021 is pre-colonial African empires. There is just so much here, so we're launching a second side-read. Please join us The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages. No pressure to finish within the allotted months-- the thread will be here.

Who's reading this one? Please share your questions, reflections, and other thoughts with us as you read.

Please check out the main Quarterly Nonfiction read, A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution, on this thread or for a lighter sip, try our other side read, The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa, discussed here.

As if on cue, this article on the archeological findings in the Kruger National Park: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic...

I haven't been in the Kruger for nearly 3 decades, but I think I must plan something for the family based on these sites, maybe 2022.

In the meantime, I do my animal watching vicariously through this webcam at one of the camps in the reserve: https://www.djuma.com/djuma-waterhole/

The one archeological site within easy distance of us is Melville Koppies, We went on one of the guided hikes in 2019.
http://www.mk.org.za/index.html
http://2summers.net/2011/02/03/melvil...

I have read the first 8 chapters by now and must say I am not fully convinced: the chapters are short, small pieces of a puzzle, mostly underlining how little we now about the earliest African empires...
More speculations than facts and stories, I am not sure what to make of it.

I'm at chapter 7 and I agree, Wim, it's very fragmentary. Each story is interesting in some part, but there is so little to anchor it in a larger narrative.

I completely know what you are referring to! So in my frustration I have re-read the introduction again in which François-Xavier Fauvelle states that the sources relating to the period between 900 - 1400 are "rare and uncertain" and that we do not even know where to locate the capital of Mali in the 14th century.

And he explains that his book is "an arrangement of fragments" and that he has preferred "the stained-glass window to the grand narrative fresco that would have produced only the illusion of an authoritative discourse".
He continues claiming that "such an authoritative discourse on ancient Africa is impossible" and later on continues ensuring us that it is "a modest, perhaps frustrating but more truthful, vision of history." :)))
So far so good, but I also have issues with this collection of fragments as they point to such different places as Morocco and Madagascar. I have the feeling that after each chapter I could already happily dive into a rabbit hole (i.e. follow the bibliographical note) which would keep me busy for the next two or three years :)))!
So maybe I will stretch my reading of these "Histories of the African Middle Ages" quite a bit and see if this works out better...

I fully agree with you Orgeluse. Though François-Xavier Fauvelle follows a honest, truthful approach in underlining how little we actually know, the snippets of chapters lack all depth. Links are being made between chapters, but could have been much more developed.

I finished the book and found it a somewhat frustrating read. I keep thinking that a different way of organizing the content (by large geographic regions?) would have given a much more readable whole. The author spends too much time discussing the sources (visitors, texts, artefacts) and too little on the general context, evolution and analysis we can make of it.

Wim wrote: "I fully agree with you Orgeluse. Though François-Xavier Fauvelle follows a honest, truthful approach in underlining how little we actually know, the snippets of chapters lack all ..."

True to the point!

I agree, it's very fragmented. I'm reading one or two chapters a day, so it is bothering me a bit less. Something the I am wondering about is how technology could eventually help to fill in some of these gaps. Many of the potential sites for missing cities are remote and fairly hostile even by today's standards.

I read an article somewhere (and for the life of me, I cannot find it) on how the paleontologists at the Sterkfontein cave complex are using a combination of Google Maps and satellite imagery to identify potential sites. They have mapped a few hundred possible locations to investigate in the area and some of their recent finding came from one of these searches. I wonder if this type of work could identify some sites for investigation in remoter parts of Africa?