Great Kingdoms of Africa

An important contribution to the body of pre-colonial histories of Africa, the book walks the reader through the origins, political evolution, and cultural achievements of a selection of indigenous African empires lost to many in the mists of the European characterization of the “dark continent”. Re......more

Great Kingdoms of Africa is a tightly woven account of the history of statecraft throughout ancient, medieval, and “pre-colonial” Africa. Different authors told briefs histories of the formation of various prominent states in East, North, West-Central, and Southern Africa, weaving together themes of......more

My discovery of this book was serendipitous: Amid a short visit to Vienna, under the careful and enjoyable guidance of a dear friend and Viennese native, we entered a wonderful, antiquated bookstore (Shakespeare & Company). It was here that I stumbled onto Great Kingdoms of Africa. It is somewhat fi......more

I am of two minds about this collection of essays edited by John Parker. Should I rate it more on its job as a primer to African History or on nature of African Kingship it wishes to investigate as per the introduction? It does a decent job as a primer into 9 different African Kingdoms for people unf......more

"I used to think, until fairly recently, that the methods available to historians of the distant African past were of a different sort than those within the reach of their European counterparts. As a citizen of a country once colonized by the British, I felt it was perhaps impossible to know of an A......more