History of Civilization: The African Experience

From Olduvai Gorge to the 21 Century

This masterpiece of scholarship and compression covering the entire span of human history across the African continent is now revised to include the events of the 1990s. From the earliest emergence of hominids up the present day the book is arranged thematically, beginning with human colonisation, the origins of food production, and the formation of African languages. The achievement of Ancient Egypt; the spread of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; the tradition of urban settlement, are traced. The extent and nature of slavery is analysed and the strengths and weaknesses of political systems are exposed; the colonial partition of Africa is dissected showing how modernisation was achieved at the expense of the indigenous structures and through the exploitation of the African peoples.

Later chapters describe the birth of modern African nation-states as the political elites of black Africa begin to review their single-party systems. This new edition sees a number of revisions, including a new chapter on the 1990s, when the end of the Cold War left Africa free at last to try to solve its own problems.