Blyden's pioneering work on the history and culture of West Africa was one of the first attempts to challenge European assumptions about the 'dark continent'. This volume includes a series of lectures delivered in England in the early 20th century, where Blyden presented his views on the need for greater recognition of Africa's contributions to world civilization. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This is a survey of pre-colonial West Africa, written by the internationally respected author and journalist, Basil Davidson. He takes as his starting point his successful textA History of West Africa 1000-1800, but he has reworked his new text specially for a wider international readership. In the process he offers a fascinating introduction to the rich societies and cultures of Africa before the coming of the Europeans.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... islam in western soudan. There is at the present moment probably no question of deeper practical interest to the European Powers, who for political and commercial objects have partitioned Africa among themselves, than the question of Islam in Soudan, both Eastern and Western. The elaborate Report of Sir Frederick Lngard, High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria, presented to Parliament in February, 1902, is almost of pathetic interest, considering the vastness of the area and the multitudinous Muslim papulation under his rule, and having regard also to the slender outfit at his command for administrative work. Public attention, in a most unusual decree, has been Article reprinted from Journal of West African Society; October, 1002. attracted to that important region, recently brought within the British Empire. Civilisation, within the last fifty years, has advanced with rapid strides, and the solidarity of humanity is being more and more recognised. Religion and race are ceasing to be barriers between man and man. "The steamship and the railway, and the thoughts that shake mankind," are annihilating distances and reducing differences and distinctions between communities alien to each other and living in various climes and countries. The Afkican Society is an offspring and illustration of the spirit of the times. So far as Africa is concerned, Miss Kingsley, whose memory it commemorates, has created a new standpoint for European thought. She has made it possible for African conditions, whether intellectual social or religious, to be studied by outsiders with patience and without prejudice; and the impulse she has given in that righteous direction will never be spent, because if the human intellect In its investigations can only be made to...

This book covers the whole range of West African archaeology to the arrival of the Portugese on the Guinea coast. Parts of this territory are very ill-explored, and emphasis is accordingly laid on the better-known regions: Ghana, Nigeria, the middle Niger valley and Western Senegal. After introducing the geographical background and chronology, subsequent chapters deal with the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and early iron ages, ending with a brief account of the protohistoric period. Published in 1967. Includes map and topographical index.

By the time the “Scramble for Africa” among European colonial powers began in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for centuries. Its gold had fueled the economies of Europe and the Islamic world for nearly a millennium, and the sophisticated kingdoms spanning its west coast had traded with Europeans since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650, this was a trade of equals, using a variety of currencies—most importantly, cowrie shells imported from the Maldives and nzimbu shells imported from Brazil. But, as the slave trade grew, African kingdoms began to lose prominence in the growing global economy. We have been living with the effects of this shift ever since. With A Fistful of Shells, Toby Green transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa by reconstructing the world of these kingdoms, which revolved around trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, and the production of art. Green shows how the slave trade led to economic disparities that caused African kingdoms to lose relative political and economic power. The concentration of money in the hands of Atlantic elites in and outside these kingdoms brought about a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa, parallel to the upheavals then taking place in Europe and America. Yet political fragmentation following the fall of African aristocracies produced radically different results as European colonization took hold. Drawing not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, art, oral history, archaeology, and letters, Green lays bare the transformations that have shaped world politics and the global economy since the fifteenth century and paints a new and masterful portrait of West Africa, past and present.