West Africa before the Colonial Era

Basil Davidson, one of the best known African historians, has written this fascinating introduction to the development and history of the rich societies and culture of West Africa until c. 1850. West Africa, of course, is a vast area, covering a great range of climates and conditions, from the Sahara to equatorial jungles and an equal range of peoples and cultures. It is not a single story that the author has to tell, but many interlocking and overlapping stories. To that end, he provides narrative accounts of the key empires and cultures of west Africa, but sets them in their broader general context, illuminated by the findings of both historians and anthropologists.