Description
Book SynopsisDesigned as a textbook for the undergraduate and graduate levels.There has long been a need for a new textbook on West Africa's history. This comprehensive collection brings together leading scholars on key themes from West Africa's prehistory to the present. It discusses various disciplinary approaches to West African history, provides overviews of the literature on major topics, and breaks new ground through the incorporation of original research. Part one provides perspectives on West Africa's history from archaeology, ecology and culture, linguistics, and oral traditions. Part two provides longue duree perspectives on environment, society, agency and historical change. Part three examines how economic and political developments haveshaped religious expression and identity in significant ways. At the end of each chapter is a short list of recommended reading. EMMANUEL KWAKU AKYEAMPONG is Professor of History at Harvard University NorthAmerica: Ohio U Press; Ghana: Woeli Publishing Services
Trade Review...the authoritative, up-to-date treatment of scholarship provides a valuable supplemental text. ... Essential. All academic and public libraries, general readers through graduate-level studies. - -- C.L. Groucher * CHOICE *
A valuable addition to the teaching repertoire of those teaching West African history at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Students will find the scholarship sophisticated but accessible, and admirably topical in the historical issues engaged. * AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW *
A highly useful book, both for undergraduates and graduate students, while providing valuable reflections on research methods and themes in West African history that are of value to Africanist scholars as well. * INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORICAL STUDIES *
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Emmanuel Akyeampong I Paths To A West African Past - The Holocene prehistory of West Africa: 10,000-1000 BP by Susan Keech McIntosh - Ecology & culture in West Africa by James L. A. Webb Jr. - Linguistics & history in West Africa by M. E. Kropp Dakubu - Oral tradition & perceptions of history from the Manding peoples of West Africa by David Conrad II Perspectives On Environment, Society, Agency & Historical Change - Slavery & slave trade in West Africa, 1450-1930 by Patrick Manning - Class, caste & social inequality in West African history by Ismail Rashid - Religious interactions in pre-20th century West Africa by Pash Obeng - Poverty in pre-colonial & colonial West Africa: perception, causes & alleviation by Ogbu U. Kalu - Disease in West African History by Emmanuel Akyeampong - Urbanization in colonial & post-colonial West Africa by Andreas Eckert III Understanding Contemporary West Africa Through Religion & Political Economy - Commodities, Mercedes-Benz & structural adjustment: an episode in West African economic history by Celestin Monga - Ethnicity, conflict & the state in contemporary West Africa by Cyril Daddieh - Pentecostalism, Islam & culture: new religious movements in West Africa by Brian Larkin & Birgit Meyer
