Key Events in African History A Reference Guide

Subjects:

• History » African History
• Multicultural Studies » African Studies

Reviews:

• Targeted at high school and college libraries for students taking survey courses in African history, this is an intriguing book....useful for its intended audience....Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries.
  —Choice June 2003
• Falola has made a valuable contribution to educate the lay reader by compiling a book that surveys the history of Africa from its prehistoric past to the end of the twentieth century....recommended.
  —MultiCultural Review September 2003
• A compact overview and summary of events that shaped the history of the African continent....This survey will prove useful as a reference source for advanced students. It should also find a home in circulating collections..
  —School Library Journal June 2003
• High-school and college libraries will find this book a valuable addition to their collections.
  —Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin May 1, 2003
• ...contains information about 36 important events in African history....This book draws upon the many changes in the African continent from governments to the environment and describes the connections between past and present African history. This is a valuable resource for updating the school library's Africa resources. Recommended.
  —Library Media Connection April/May 2003

• Endorsement From Funso Afolayan
  Associate Professor of African History
  University of New Hampshire: A splendid achievement, a product of sound scholarship...an excellent introduction to the history of a turbulent, varied, and promising continent. Reference works are generally perceived to be ponderous works, tedious to write and dreary to read, but this is different. As a reference work, Key Events is unlike any other; invaluable and tantalizing, both in its ability to balance comprehensiveness with precision, scholastic rigor with pundit humor, as well as in its sensitive and salutary depiction of the tragedies and triumphs, gloom and glories that had been the lot of this oldest of all the continents in the last five thousand years. Anyone who says that African history is not fascinating has not read Falola's book. Even those with only a passing interest in the history of Africa will find the book superbly engaging, saucily entertaining, sometimes controversial, frequently disturbing, but ultimately reassuring.
• Endorsement From Edmund Abaka
  Assistant Professor of African History
  University of Miami: Provides a comprehensive survey of African history from the earliest beginnings to the economic problems of the recent past. The key events have been carefully selected in such a way that they illustrate the rich diversity of the continent's peoples and their way of life....Falola's account is woven into a tapestry that brings to light various facets of Africa's rich and textured history. It is written in simple, elegant prose for the college student and the non-specialist. Specialists would also find it an important source of information.
• Endorsement From George O. Ndege
  Department of History
  Saint Louis University: This is an unprecedented reference work that covers an incredible range of topics and offers fresh insights on thirty-six key events in African history. The selection of the events is sound and balanced. All the regions of the continent, as well as critical issues, institutions, and personalities from the prehistoric period to the present are neatly woven into this powerful volume. Sensibly organized, thoroughly researched, painstakingly accurate, and brilliantly well-written, this book is a necessary reading, indeed an indispensable tool, for those who wish to study African history.
• Endorsement From Jonathan T. Reynolds
  Department of History
  Northern Kentucky University: Toyin Falola has created a valuable resource for newcomers to African History. Written and organized with an eye toward accessibility, this book is a critical step in moving African Studies beyond academia and to an audience that includes the general reading public. Public schools and undergraduate institutions will find this text to be an invaluable addition to their references resources for African History.

Table of Contents:

• Preface
• Timeline of Historical Events
• The Ancient and Precolonial Period
• Africa: An Overview
• The Prehistoric Past: The Evolution of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, 40,000 B.C.
• The Agricultural Revolution, 5000 B.C.+
• The Civilization of Ancient Egypt, 3100 B.C.+
• The Iron Age and the Spread of Bantu Speakers, 730 B.C.+
• The Rise of Kush and Aksum, 730 B.C.+
• The Greeks and Romans in North Africa, 332 B.C.+
• Ethiopia: The Emergence of a Christian Kingdom, 1250 A.D.+
• The Spread of Islam, 622 A.D. Onward
• Kingdoms of West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay, A.D. 1000-1600
• The Rise of the Swahili City-States of East Africa, Tenth-Fourteenth Century A.D.
• The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870
• The Organization of Societies, Fifteenth Century A.D. Onward
• The Nineteenth-Century Period
• The Outbreak of Islamic Jihad, 1804
• Wars and Revolution Among the Yoruba, 1817-93
• The Spread of Christianity, 1804 Onward
• The Rise of Muhammad Ali of Egypt, 1811-47
• The Mfecane: Shaka and the Zulu Kingdom, 1816-40
• European Conquest and African Response, 1885-1900
• The Twentieth-Century Period
• The Colonial Experience, 1900-39
• The Entrenchment of Apartheid in South Africa, 1948
• Africa Drawn into the Second World War, 1940-45
• The End of European Rule, 1951-90
• Violence to Gain National Liberation, 1952-62
• Confrontation with the Gains and Pains if Independence, 1958-70
• The Formation of the Organization of African Unity, 1963
• Coups, Counter Coups, and Military Regimes, 1963 Onward
• Ufamaa and Policy Choices, 1967 Onward
• The Creation of the Economic Community of West African States, 1975
• Portuguese Colonies Attain Freedom, 1975
• Cultural Revival and Cultural Inventory: The Second World Festival of African Arts and Culture, 1977
• The Women's Decade, 1975-85
• A Continent in Deep Crisis, 1980+
• Environmental Challenges, 1980 Onward
• African Refugees, 1980 Onward
• Africa in World Politics in Transition, 1980s Onward
• The Fall of Apartheid and the Advent of Nelson Mandela's Government, 1994-99
• Index