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Africa: A biography of the continent
Dec. 28th, 2007 08:25 pmIf you are the sort of person who routinely makes time in your reading schedule for 600+ page history books, this is a good one to add to the list. The writing is clear, well-ordered, and witty (in that not-trying-too-hard, understated way). Also, if you're like me in that most of your knowledge of world history comes from a United States public school standard history curriculum, the African history portion might have gotten a bit, umm, ... short changed? Most of what I remember about African history from high school implied that, except for Egypt, African history began in 1800 something when the slave trade peaked and then abruptly ended, fast forwarded in time to the WWII era for some Italian and German battles (with a back-of-your-mind Indiana Jones soundtrack please) and then fast-forwarded again to a montage of African states declaring independence (all actual battles and guillotinings conveniently excised from the record) and was then followed by another blip forward that ended in South Africa when apartheid fell.
The author of this book does a good job, I think, of pointing out when [white European] cultural myths about African development and history clash with what is known through archaeological digs, Arabic history sources, oral tradition, etc. And the early slavery bits [white European exploitation for export/plantation work as compared to, say, inter-tribal slavery or the trade through North Africa swapping slaves for salt] are kind of interesting, though I'm DREADING getting through the bits on the full-on Atlantic slave trade. I feel like so far the book has done a good job of putting events in perspective from several directions - like, talking about Vasco de Gama's journey around Africa from the point of view of Africans on the West side of the continent, from the point of view of the [relatively] affluent Islamic and Christian nations on the East side of the African continent, from the point of view of the Arabic people who were trading with Africa and India at the time... I'm excited to maybe someday track down some of the books he's quoting from in this section. And I think my next big history book will probably be on one of the East India companies.
My favorite quote from today's readings:
"The man who piloted da Gama's fleet to India has been identified as Ahmad Ibn-Madjid, not a Christian [we'd just read that da Gama's fleet had been told they were getting a Christian pilot, so the author is just making sure we're oriented here], but the most famous Arab pilot of his day, and one who knew the Indian Ocean better than any other. Thanks to his guidance, the Portuguese reached Calicut without further difficulty. Their arrival inaugurated an age of European maritime power in the region; not surprisingly, Ibn-Madjid has been blamed for his contribution to Europe's ascendancy. Fellow-countrymen and co-religionists cursed his memory; and in his old age, Ibn-Madjid himself bitterly regretted what he had done."
Bits that make this pop for me?: "thanks to his guidance" and "not surprisingly." The book has been really good about talking about things like East coast African trade networks with Arabia, India, and China, trans-Saharan trade networks between West Africa and North Africa all the way through to the Arabic world and so forth - so that the reader doesn't think that 1400s - 1600s European exploration was some kind of first contact with a totally isolated world.
The author of this book does a good job, I think, of pointing out when [white European] cultural myths about African development and history clash with what is known through archaeological digs, Arabic history sources, oral tradition, etc. And the early slavery bits [white European exploitation for export/plantation work as compared to, say, inter-tribal slavery or the trade through North Africa swapping slaves for salt] are kind of interesting, though I'm DREADING getting through the bits on the full-on Atlantic slave trade. I feel like so far the book has done a good job of putting events in perspective from several directions - like, talking about Vasco de Gama's journey around Africa from the point of view of Africans on the West side of the continent, from the point of view of the [relatively] affluent Islamic and Christian nations on the East side of the African continent, from the point of view of the Arabic people who were trading with Africa and India at the time... I'm excited to maybe someday track down some of the books he's quoting from in this section. And I think my next big history book will probably be on one of the East India companies.
My favorite quote from today's readings:
"The man who piloted da Gama's fleet to India has been identified as Ahmad Ibn-Madjid, not a Christian [we'd just read that da Gama's fleet had been told they were getting a Christian pilot, so the author is just making sure we're oriented here], but the most famous Arab pilot of his day, and one who knew the Indian Ocean better than any other. Thanks to his guidance, the Portuguese reached Calicut without further difficulty. Their arrival inaugurated an age of European maritime power in the region; not surprisingly, Ibn-Madjid has been blamed for his contribution to Europe's ascendancy. Fellow-countrymen and co-religionists cursed his memory; and in his old age, Ibn-Madjid himself bitterly regretted what he had done."
Bits that make this pop for me?: "thanks to his guidance" and "not surprisingly." The book has been really good about talking about things like East coast African trade networks with Arabia, India, and China, trans-Saharan trade networks between West Africa and North Africa all the way through to the Arabic world and so forth - so that the reader doesn't think that 1400s - 1600s European exploration was some kind of first contact with a totally isolated world.
