Reviews for Africa and the West A Documentary History from the Slave Trade to Independence

The average rating for Africa and the West A Documentary History from the Slave Trade to Independence based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-06-17 00:00:00 Sam Majczak Intrinsic interest: 6/5 Literary style: 2/5 Scholarly argument: 5/5 Historical conclusions: 5/5 This is a brilliant speculative history of East Africa in the period 1000BCE-400CE. It was a multicultural place, connected to Asia and Europe by the Indian Ocean shipping lanes, and transforming as Mashariki, Khoisan, Sahelian and Cushite peoples moved across the landscape. They developed new forms of life, planting new crops, raising new animals, founding new industries and upheaving their kinship and social systems. The book could have been somewhat more vivid. It was a very dense discussion, with lots and lots of proper nouns and not a lot of description or narrative. The concluding chapters, however, made up for this, with a rousing defence of multiculturalism, the complexity and contingency of human destiny, and the remarkable achievements of African peoples in recent millennia.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-23 00:00:00 Mario Ocejo Quite niche but if the title intrigues you, as it did me, then it's worth the investment. For someone from a different field, it was fascinating to see what we can learn from language alone (or almost solely). That said, there's quite a bit of detail, usually about specific words, that most readers will want to skip - and thanks to the author, they can without losing anything.