Books by Roland Oliver

This book covers the entire span of human history across the African continent, from the earliest emergence of hominids in eastern and southern Africa. It discusses the human colonization of the different regions of Africa, the origins of food production, and the formation of African languages.

This title reveals Oliver's efforts from the 1940s to the 1980s to train and foster African graduate students to teach in African universities; his role in bringing together the work of historians and archaeologists from Europe and Africa; his encounters with Africans; and the political and economic upheavals of Africa he encountered.

The African Middle Ages covers the period of African history from 1400 to 1800. During this period Africa was influenced by external forces as the Islamic states of the north extended their sway and as maritime trade with Europe and Asia increased. The notorious slave-trade created the black population of North and South America, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean islands.

This is a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to African History between about 500 B.C. and A.D.1400. The author looks at the enormous changes - political, social and economic - which took place during the period throughout the continent of Africa, from hunter-gatherers to a state system and Monophysite Christianity.

A brilliant survey of African history, now revised to include the events of the 1990s.

This is a radically revised version of The African Middle Ages 1400-1800, and the companion volume to the authors' well-known Africa since 1800. It follows the overall plan of the original, but now begins 150 years earlier, and considers recent literature in African historical studies. The earlier starting date enables a more distinctly African viewpoint. By about 1250 AD African societies were greatly expanding their political and economic scope. Islam was spreading south across the Sahara from Mediterranean Africa, and down the Indian Ocean coast. Medieval Africa continues into the period of European contacts from the 15th century onwards, with some emphasis on the growth of the trans-Saharan, Atlantic and Indian Ocean slave trade. The book stresses both the strengths and weaknesses of African societies as the eighteenth century drew to a close. This volume will be an essential introduction to African history for students, as well as for the general reader. It is illustrated with a wealth of maps.