A History of the African People

The fifth edition of Robert July's critically acclaimed work continues the tradition of excellence established in previous editions, providing a comprehensive history that both illuminates and clarifies events past and present. A History of the African People, 5/E surveys Africa's history from its earliest beginnings to the present day, exploring themes that cut across time and place to furnish their own unity and consistency: the migrations of peoples, the power of religion, the enduring impact of Africa's climate, and Africa's relationship with the wider world that is, the invasion of foreign peoples, ideas, and institutions that has been a pervasive influence in shaping African political, economic, and social life. This volume addresses the role of Africa's women in Africa's history, includes additional sections on slavery and the slave trade, and discusses the persistent difficulties of African societies to gain the economic and social advantages hoped for from independence. July examines Africa's peoples and its cultures with a authority that has made this book the standard in the field and an indispensable guide to understanding the complexity of the African struggle for nationhood.

Part I. ANCIENT AFRICA

1. The Beginnings of African History

2. African in the Ancient World

3. The States of the Western and Central Sudan

4. The Cosmopolitan World of East Africa

5. The West African Forest Civilization

6. The Great Migrations

7. The Coming of Europe

Part II. REVOLUTIONARY AFRICA

8. The Genesis of Modern Africa

9. Religion and Empire in Western and Central Sudan

10. The Eastern Sudan Egyptian Expansionism and the Mahdist Revolution

11. Population Explosions in Southern Africa

12. West Africa and Europe's Humanitarian Revolution

13. Commerce and Statecraft in Eastern and Central Africa

Part III. COLONIAL AFRICA

14. The Partition of Africa

15. Early Nationalist Stirrings in West Africa

16. The Foundations of Progress and Poverty in Southern Africa

17. Colonialism and Nation Making in East Africa

18. Between Two World Wars Nationalist Frustrations in West Africa

19. In the Heart of Darkness

20. The Two Societies of Southern Africa

Part IV. INDEPENDENT AFRICA

21. Toward Independence

22. Independence Economics

23. States and Nations

24. Disintegrating Citadels in the South

25. African Cultural Independence Ideals and Complexities

Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Bohannan-Curtin, Africa and Africans, Fourth Edition (ISBN 9780881338409) and Middleton, African Merchants of the Indian Ocean: Swahili of the East African Coast (ISBN 9781577663140).