A considerable proportion of the authors of this book are either Africans or live in Africa, and all of them carry out fieldwork there. Its size and coverage allows not only a wide overview of development in Africa from around 8000 BC to the present-day, but also some review chapters and in-depth studies. Contrary to common perception, it is intended that Africa's past should emerge as anything but a vast barren area, open to all extraneous influence, and eager to welcome incoming innovations and colonizers in order to be pushed into some kind of development. Instead, the book aims to show...

The authors of this work are either Africans or live in Africa, and all carry out fieldwork there. This not only allows a wide overview of African development from around 8000 BC to the present day, but also offers individual reviews and in-depth studies. Rather than appearing as a barren continenent, requiring the input of colonizers in order to make any kind of progress, Africa emerges as the proud possessor of a vast and highly complex inter-weaving of peoples and cultures, all practising a huge diversity of economic and social strategies in so many different environmental situations. In...