Books in the New Approaches to African History series

This textbook on the history of African decolonization and independence bridges the divide between colonial and post-colonial history, explaining how political independence did and did not affect how men and women, peasants and workers, religious and local leaders lived, worked and interacted with each other.

An innovative approach to examining the history and culture of development which has been an essential component of the 'idea of Africa' in western discourses since the early 1800s, this engaging coursebook provides detailed case study analysis to enhance understanding of key theoretical and historical concepts.

An original interpretative history for students or scholars of West Central Africa from earliest times to 1852 which benefits from comprehensive and in-depth treatment of internal histories, inter-state interactions, and external relationships for an original approach to regional histories.

Africa's place in the global history of human rights is examined through this interpretative history that explores indigenous African rights traditions, humanitarianism and anti-slavery, colonialism and nationalism, anti-colonialism and struggles for self-determination, and the pro-democracy movements that emerged in the era of independence and constitutional rights.

In this book, Karin Barber offers a journey through the history of music, theatre, fiction, songs, dance, poetry, jokes and film from the seventeenth century to the present day. It provides an ideal text for students and researchers seeking to learn more about the diversity of popular cultural forms in African history.

During a turbulent colonial and postcolonial century, African women struggled to control their own marital, sexual and economic lives and to gain a significant voice in local and national politics. This book introduces students to these remarkable women.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the history of democracy in Africa and grapples with important questions facing Africa and democracy today, including whether international actors should promote democracy abroad, how to design political systems that manage ethnic diversity, and why democratic governments often make bad policies.

This book is a comprehensive history of slavery in Africa from earliest times to the end of the twentieth century, connecting the emergence and consolidation of slavery to specific historical forces both internal and external to the African continent. It examines the different forms of slavery that developed in Africa and presents the lives, work, and struggles of slaves themselves.

This book chronicles the foreign political and military interventions in Africa from 1956 to 2010, during the periods of decolonisation and the Cold War, as well as during the periods of state collapse and the 'global war on terror', helping readers understand the historical roots of Africa's problems.

This book gives a comprehensive picture of cities in Africa from early origins to the present. It views towns and cities as an inherent part of developing Africa and emphasizes the extent to which the future of African society and African culture will likely be played out mostly in cities.

This 2005 book examines the global unfolding of the African Diaspora, the migrations and dispersals of the people of Africa, from antiquity to the modern period. The experiences of Africans in the Old World is followed by their experience in lands claimed by European colonial powers.

This book surveys the history of armed conflict in Africa in the period since decolonization and independence. The number of post-independence conflicts in Africa has been considerable, and this book introduces to readers a comprehensive analysis of their causes and character. Tracing the evolution of warfare from anti-colonial and anti-apartheid campaigns to complex conflicts in which factionalized armies, militias and rebel groups fight with each other and prey upon non-combatants, it allows the readers a new perspective to understand violence on the continent. The book is written to appeal not only to students of history and African politics, but also to experts in the policy community, the military and humanitarian agencies.

Examining a series of processes (Islamization, Arabization, Africanization) and case studies from North, West and East Africa, this book gives snapshots of Muslim societies in Africa over the last millennium. In contrast to traditions which suggest that Islam did not take root in Africa, author David Robinson shows the complex struggles of Muslims in the Muslim state of Morocco and in the Hausaland region of Nigeria. He portrays the ways in which Islam was practiced in the 'pagan' societies of Ashanti (Ghana) and Buganda (Uganda) and in the ostensibly Christian state of Ethiopia - beginning with the first emigration of Muslims from Mecca in 615 CE, well before the foundational hijra to Medina in 622. He concludes with chapters on the Mahdi and Khalifa of the Sudan and the Murid Sufi movement that originated in Senegal, and reflections in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001.