Michael Brett 
Approaching African History 

Africa is a huge continent, as large as the more habitable areas of Europe and Asia put together. It has a history immensely long, yet the study of that history as an academic discipline in its own right is little more than fiftyyears old. Since then the subject has grown enormously, but the question of what this history is and how it has been approached still needs to be asked, not least to answer the question of why should we study it.


This book takes as its subject the last 10, 000 years of African history, and traces the way in which human society on the continent has evolved from communities of hunters and gatherers to the complex populations of today. Approaching that history through its various dimensions: archaeological, ethnographic, written, scriptural, European and contemporary, it looks at how the history of such a vast region over such a length of time has been conceived and presented, and how it is to be investigated. The problem itself is historical, and an integral part of the history with which it is concerned, beginning with the changing awareness over the centuries of what Africa might be. Michael Brett thus traces the history of Africa not only on the ground, but also in the mind, in order to make his own historical contribution to the debate.


Michael Brett is Emeritus Reader in the History of North Africa at SOAS.

Содержание

PART I The Problem of African History

The Problem of Definition

Solving the Problem: the Search for Information

Solving the Problem: the Writing of African History PART II The Making of African Society A: The Archaeological Dimension

From Hunting and Gathering to Herding and Farming

From Herding and Farming to Cities and States

The Peopling of the South B: The Ethnographic Dimension

Men and Women

From Kinship to Kingship

The Mind of Africa

The Empires of the South PART III Africa in the World C: The Written Dimension

Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern

Ancient Egypt and Nubia

The World of Greece and Rome

Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers D: The Scriptural Dimension

Christianity and the World of Late Antiquity

The Arabs and Islam

Islam, the Sahara and the Land of the Blacks

Islam and Christianity in the East

Ibn Battuta and Ibn Khaldun PART IV The Unification of Africa E: The European Dimension

The Age of Empire

An Islamic Africa

Between the Americas and the Indies F: The European Invasion

A History in Change

After Napoleon

The Reconfiguration of Africa

The Reorganisation of Africa

The Reaction of Africa PART V The Arrival of African History G:The Present Dimension

The Resurgence of Africa

Africa in Contemporary History

The Approach to African History