Summary
Praise for the previous edition:
Booklist/RBB "Editors' Choice Reference Source, 2001"
"...a useful historical perspective...fills a gap in the reference collection and is recommended for high-school, public, and academic libraries..."—Booklist
"This well-researched resource will enhance and support the study of this vast continent...Sidebars add important detail and much information on legends, myth, and folklore...Good-quality, black-and-white photographs, reproductions, and maps are scattered throughout...this wide-ranging, useful set...will serve both teachers and students as they begin their investigations of African history."—School Library Journal
"...impressive, scholarly set...This is an outstanding purchase for libraries because it can be used for so many different applications...You will find the answers to questions that you didn't even know you had in this amazing set! Highly Recommended."—The Book Report
"...a valuable tool for people beginning their studies in African history...clear and accessible prose...easy to use."—H-Net
A comprehensive encyclopedia on African history with a broad cultural and geographic sweep, this outstanding set covers African history from ancient times to the modern day. The first three volumes are completely revised and updated editions of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African History and Culture (Facts On File, 2001), with two volumes added to complete the expansive coverage. The five-volume Encyclopedia of African History and Culture—each volume devoted to a major period in the continent's development—spans the immense scope of African history, geography, art, cultures, peoples, personalities, and wildlife.
In-depth, heavily cross-referenced A-to-Z entries draw students, researchers, and general readers into the histories of ancient cities, powerful kingdoms, and charismatic leaders, many of whom are little known. Filled with fascinating sidebars, unusual illustrations, and a recounting of oral traditions and histories, this attractive and readable encyclopedia is an ideal source of authoritative information as well as an entertaining and illuminating guide to the world's most diverse continent.
The first three completely revised volumes contain updated entries as well as several new articles, expanded further reading sections, and updated cross-references. All volumes include a new contributor page, index, and bibliography, and a cumulative index and general bibliography have been added to the fifth volume. Introductions, timelines, and lists of maps, images, and entries in each volume complete this highly accessible encyclopedic set.
Volume I: Ancient Africa
The first volume in this set, Ancient Africa, covers the earliest stages of Africa's history, from civilization's beginnings through the Metallic Age, the kingdoms of Egypt and Nubia, Africa's interaction with ancient Greece and Rome, and the rise of Kush and Aksum. This revised volume has updated entries, expanded further reading sections, updated cross-references, and a new bibliography.
Volume II: African Kingdoms
African Kingdoms focuses on the period from approximately 500 through 1500, encompassing the powerful kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, along with the wealthy city-states of the west and south. This volume has been revised to include expanded further reading sections, updated cross-references, and a new bibliography, as well as updated entries.
Volume III: From Conquest to Colonization
Covering the period from approximately 1500 to 1850, From Conquest to Colonization examines the Grain, Gold, and Slave Coasts; the rise of the slave trade; the growing European interest in Africa; and the traditional governments, religions, and arts of the regions. This revised volume includes updated entries, expanded further reading sections, updated cross-references, and a new bibliography.
Volume IV: The Colonial Era
The Colonial Era covers the colonial era from the French invasion and control over Algeria through the full-scale colonial conquest of Africa. It discusses the establishment of European colonial rule throughout the continent, the emergence of nationalist movements, and their gradual triumph throughout much of the continent in the 1950s.
Volume V: Independent Africa
Independent Africa covers the independence and postcolonial era in Africa, from the bloody and lengthy wars of liberation against Portuguese colonial rule and the breakaway white minority government on Rhodesia, through South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, which ended the long era of apartheid and led Nelson Mandela to the presidency.
Specifications
Five volumes. For each volume: Black-and-white photographs. Maps. Indexes. Bibliographies. Glossary. Cross-references. Chronologies.
About the Author(s)
Editor Willie F. Page is emeritus professor of Africana studies at Brooklyn College and former director of the Africana Research Center. The author of The Dutch Triangle: The Netherlands and the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1621-1664, he has published and lectured widely on African and African-American history.
Editor of the revised editions, R. Hunt Davis Jr. is emeritus professor of history and African studies at the University of Florida. He obtained a Ph.D. in African studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An expert on the history of South Africa, African agricultural history, and the history of education in Africa, his published works include Mandela, Tambo, and the African National Congress and Apartheid Unravels. He served as director of the University of Florida Center for African Studies, and editor of the African Studies Review.