Africans: The History of a ContinentCambridge University Press, 2017 M07 13 - 402 pages In a vast and all-embracing study of Africa, from the origins of mankind to the present day, John Iliffe refocuses its history on the peopling of an environmentally hostile continent. Africans have been pioneers struggling against disease and nature, but during the last century their inherited culture has interacted with medical progress to produce the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen. This new edition incorporates genetic and linguistic findings, throwing light on early African history and summarises research that has transformed the study of the Atlantic slave trade. It also examines the consequences of a rapidly growing youthful population, the hopeful but uncertain democratisation and economic recovery of the early twenty-first century, the containment of the AIDS epidemic and the turmoil within Islam that has produced the Arab Spring. Africans: The History of a Continent is thus a single story binding modern men and women to their earliest human ancestors. |
Contents
The Frontiersmen of Mankind | 1 |
The Emergence of Foodproducing Communities | 6 |
The Impact of Metals | 18 |
Christianity and Islam | 38 |
Colonising Society in Western Africa | 65 |
Colonising Society in Eastern and Southern Africa | 103 |
The Atlantic Slave Trade | 135 |
Regional Diversity in the Nineteenth Century | 170 |
Colonial Invasion | 201 |
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Common terms and phrases
Afrikaner agricultural Angola Arab areas army Asante Bantu became Berber British Cape capital cattle cent central chief chiefdoms chiefly Christian coastal Congo continent created crisis crops cultivators culture decline demographic disease dominated East eastern economic Egypt Egyptian eighteenth century elite epidemic equatorial especially Ethiopia European expanded exports famine forest French Fulbe Ghana Gold Coast groups Hausa Hutu Ifriqiya Igbo important independence indigenous Islamic Kenya Khoe king kingdom Kongo labour Lake land later leaders Mali military millennium million missionaries modern Mozambique Muslim nationalist Niger Nigeria nineteenth century North northern numbers organisation pastoralists peasant perhaps political polygynous population growth Portuguese probably production regime region resistance rulers rural Rwanda Saharan savanna Senegal settlement slave trade social society South Africa southern Africa southwards sub-Saharan Africa Sudan survived took towns tropical Africa Tutsi Uganda urban Valley villages West Africa West African western Africa women Xhosa Yoruba young