---
title: History of Africa
description: Africa's history spans ancient kingdoms, trade empires, colonisation and independence. You will learn the continent's major civilisations and eras beyond the Eurocentric narrative.
category: humanities
subcategory: history
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/history-of-africa
---

# History of Africa

Africa's history spans ancient kingdoms, trade empires, colonisation and independence. You will learn the continent's major civilisations and eras beyond the Eurocentric narrative.

## Available Resources

5 Books • 1 Courses

## Podcasts

### 1. Africa Past & Present

**Author:** Peter Alegi, Peter Limb

Michigan State University podcast launched in 2008 by historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb, featuring interviews with scholars about recent research on African history, culture, and politics. Gives listeners accessible entry points into current debates in African studies.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://afripod.aodl.org/

**Tags:** african-history, african-studies, african-politics, decolonization, scholar-interviews

## Books

### 1. UNESCO General History of Africa (8 volumes)

**Author:** Various (eds. J. Ki-Zerbo, G. Mokhtar, M. El Fasi, D. T. Niane, B. A. Ogot, J. F. A. Ajayi, A. A. Boahen, A. A. Mazrui)

An eight-volume reference history written mainly by African scholars and edited by Ki-Zerbo, Mokhtar, Niane, Boahen, Mazrui and others. It runs from methodology and prehistory to Africa since 1935, and the full texts are free through UNESCO's UNESDOC repository.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.unesco.org/en/general-history-africa

**Tags:** african-history, precolonial-africa, colonialism, historiography, decolonization

### 2. A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present (3rd edition)

**Author:** Richard J. Reid

A history of Africa from 1800 to the present, covering nineteenth-century states, the European conquest, colonial rule, nationalism, independence and the postcolonial era. It stresses African agency and the long-term militarisation of political culture on the continent.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119381924?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** african-history, modern-africa, colonialism, decolonization, postcolonial-africa

### 3. The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages

**Author:** François-Xavier Fauvelle (trans. Troy Tice)

Thirty-four short chapters, each built on one source, object or site, that reconstruct African societies between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. They include Mapungubwe, Ghana, Mali, Aksum-era Ethiopia, the Swahili coast and the trans-Saharan trade. Shows how historians rebuild precolonial Africa from sparse evidence.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691217149?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** african-history, medieval-africa, trans-saharan-trade, archaeology, precolonial-africa

### 4. History of Africa (4th edition)

**Author:** Kevin Shillington

An illustrated narrative textbook that runs chronologically from human evolution through ancient, medieval, colonial and independent Africa to the present. It has more than 200 colour maps and photographs, a glossary, and boxed sections on debates in African history. The easiest way in for a newcomer: plain prose and many maps give the spatial grounding that Iliffe's thematic book assumes.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/113750403X?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** african-history, precolonial-africa, colonialism, decolonization, survey-history

### 5. Africans: The History of a Continent (3rd edition)

**Author:** John Iliffe

The most rigorous one-volume history of the continent, treating Africans as the main actors and covering North Africa too. A single-volume history of the whole continent, north and south of the Sahara, from human origins to the twenty-first century. It uses population growth and environment as its organising themes and draws on genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1316648125?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** african-history, demographic-history, environmental-history, precolonial-africa, colonialism

## Courses

### 1. Archaeology and Heritage of Africa

**Author:** Sofia Fonseca, Jörg Linstädter

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona introductory course on African archaeology, covering archaeological methods and heritage management, then case studies such as early farming communities in Mozambique and Brandberg rock art. Gives an overview of how archaeologists investigate and protect African sites.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/archaeology-heritage-africa

**Tags:** african-archaeology, heritage-management, rock-art, archaeological-methods, african-history

---

*This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge*

*Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).*

View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/history-of-africa