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"Awe-inspiring . . . a masterly synthesis."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Deeply penetrating, intensely thought-provoking and thoroughly informed . . . one of the most important general surveys of Africa that has been produced in the last decade." --The Washington Post
In 1978, paleontologists in East Africa discovered the earliest evidence of our divergence from the apes: three pre-human footprints, striding away from a volcano, were preserved in the petrified surface of a mudpan over three million years ago. Out of Africa, the world's most ancient and stable landmass, Homo sapiens dispersed across the globe. And yet the continent that gave birth to human history has long been woefully misunderstood and mistreated by the rest of the world.
In a book as splendid in its wealth of information as it is breathtaking in scope, British writer and photojournalist John Reader brings to light Africa's geology and evolution, the majestic array of its landforms and environments, the rich diversity of its peoples and their ways of life, the devastating legacies of slavery and colonialism as well as recent political troubles and triumphs. Written in simple, elegant prose and illustrated with Reader's own photographs, Africa: A Biography of the Continent is an unforgettable book that will delight the general reader and expert alike.
"Breathtaking in its scope and detail." --San Francisco Chronicle
Africa: A Biography of the Continent
| Customer Rating:  | Book was in excellent condition as promised. Packaged very well.
Thank you very much! |
An epic history for an epic continent
| Customer Rating: | _Africa: A Biography of the Continent_ by John Reader is a very well-named book, a through and engaging look at the epic story of this land, from its geological origins to its most recent political struggles. Though a thick book at 682 pages (plus appendices, endnotes, and bibliography), it is a wonderful read.
The introductory section laments that Africa has been "woefully misunderstood and misused by the rest of the world," and that humanity does not properly "recognize its debts and obligations to Africa." A question the author asks, and returns to again and again in the book, is why did the population of humans that left Africa 100,000 years ago grew at much faster rate, or conversely, what prevented the Africans from growing at a similar rate?
Part one was four chapters detailing the geological and paleontological history of Africa, the author noting that the search for missing links is a tradition in African paleontology ("an icon...hunted with fervor bordering on the zealous"), whether the links between reptiles and mammals, lower and higher primates, or hominids and modern humans.
Part two was fantastic, devoted to the origins of the hominids. Hominids he noted arose in an ecological diverse setting (there was no abrupt replacement of forest by savanna when they arose 7 million years ago) and that apes were preadapted for bipedalism (apes carry 60% of their weight on their hind legs, contrasting with 40% for most quadrupeds). Hominids may have evolved to become nomadic, to take advantage of an unexploited food resource, the natural deaths that occurred in the great east African game herds (research has shown that as much as 70% of all carcasses found in the region died from other than predation and are largely unexploited by the highly territorial carnivores). He also cited such researchers as Peter Wheeler, who concluded that "thermoregulation is at the root of all things human," that being bipedal gave hominids additional advantages (walking upright exposed less body surface to direct rays of the sun and allowed for more heat to be removed from the skin by convection by taking advantage of the cooling effects of being higher above ground) that allowed them to remain active in temperatures that would drive a quadruped to heat stroke.
Part three looked at the origins of modern humans civilization, spending a good deal of time on the importance of language and the increasing evidence that sophisticated modern behavior did not arise first 30,000-40,000 years ago among humans that had left Africa for Eurasia, but instead had occurred in Africa some 35,000 years earlier than that, the author providing accounts of the manufacture of sophisticated tools and early attempts at agricultural practices. A fascinating chapter was devoted to the spread of the iron-using Bantu-speaking peoples, who in less than 3,000 years expanded from their homes in modern Nigeria and Cameroon to colonize virtually all of sub-Saharan Africa, "an event unmatched in world history."
Part four was an immensely interesting section, detailing many interesting African civilizations, including the Aksum of Ethiopia (whose influences at its height extended into Arabia and developed Africa's only indigenous written script, Ge'ez) and Jenne-jeno (an urban civilization of the inland Niger delta in Mali that was not hierarchical and lacked centralized control yet was quite prosperous). The history of African agriculture is well-covered, noting the importance of bananas and plantains to the diet, the differing practices of raising cattle for milk versus beef (surprisingly interesting), and the fact that elephants were a real impediment to African agricultural development until comparatively recent times. Slavery is also covered, as the author stated that between 30-60% of all Africans were slaves during historic times, far exceeding the number taken from the continent by the slave trade, these being slaves used within Africa.
Part five examined early European exploration of Africa and the origins of the Atlantic slave trade and also delved into many aspects of African political and economic development, noting how various factors, such as unpredictable climate, disease, problems of food production, the need to maintain voluntary and cooperative trade links, and the age-set system of rule mitigated against the development of powerful, densely-settled African states (and the disadvantage this would put the Africans at when facing Europeans). Reader also spent a good deal of time noting just how profoundly four centuries of slave-trading "seized the entire social and cultural ethos" of Africa, leading to destruction of some peoples, the creation of others, and the commercialization of African economies (sadly, even after the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade indigenous slavery not only continued to exist but actually expanded).
Part six largely dealt with the history of South Africa. Surprisingly, the Zulu state owes is existence less to the rise of Shaka than popularly thought, as it was "squeezed into being" between spreading white settlers in the west and the disruptive activities of slave traders to the east. Early established labor practices for African workers in the Kimberly diamond fields and Witwaterstrand gold mines would have profound implications and influence on Africa, firmly establishing Africans not as true employees but something to be exploited.
Part seven looked at the European scramble for Africa, the horror of King Leopold's Congo and its "carnival of massacre," some of the political legacies of European colonies (177 different ethnic groups according to one study are divided by European-established national boundaries), why Africans accepted the "the thin white line" that was colonial administration, and the profound impacts of the rinderpest plague, which killed a staggering 90-95% of all cattle in Africa between 1889 and the early 1900s, leading to a disruption in agricultural practices and the return of the tsetse fly to large swaths of land (many famous game parks such as the Serengeti exist today largely thanks to this plague).
Part eight examined the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, the causes of Africa's frequent coups, and why prosperous, stable democracies are virtually unheard of in sub-Saharan Africa (the author examined the "Botswana exception").
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Africa
| Customer Rating: | | This is a wonderful, well written book. I would recoomend this to anyone who wants to understand Africa today. |
Reader interested in Africa
| Customer Rating:  | | I purchased the Book Africa a Biography of the Continent. This book gives a very a very complete back ground on Africa to included geography and formation of the continent. I have not finished reading the book but, will certainly appreciate the knowledge that this book contains. In the last two years I have made 10 trips to Africa for work and certainly appreciate knowing more about what makes Africa what it is today. Erin H. Milligan |
Fascinating details presented in the broadest possible canvas
| Customer Rating: | The beauty of John Reader's "biography" of Africa is that he steadfastly keeps his focus on the continent as a whole. Although you'll read about prominent natives such as Lewanika and Lumumba and colonialists such as Leopold and Livingstone, they are presented more as examples, whether heroic or demonic, than as determining influences. This is no History of Great Men.
Instead, Reader's investigation focuses on the land and its inhabitants (human, animal, and vegetable). Indeed, humans barely make an appearance in the first couple of hundred pages. In the opening chapters, Reader canvases Africa's geological beginnings, its environmental advantages and limitations, its fauna and wildlife. The book's broad outlook is much like Jared Diamond's survey in "Guns, Germs, and Steel," although Reader's approach is more hesitant: he does not suggest environmental determinism as a primary factor in the development of African civilization; rather, he merely emphasizes its importance.
After investigating the creation of the setting, Reader then populates the stage with societies through several millennia: from the migration patterns of smaller tribes to the rise of civilizations like Aksum. His chapter on how the annual flooding of the Niger River resulted in the Jenne-jeno mounds ("cities without citadels") is masterful; similarly, he ably details the dislocations caused by more infamous scourges, from the biological menace of the tsetse fly to the man-made affliction of slavery.
When Reader reaches the era of European hegemony and its aftermath, however, he often (and understandably) can barely contain his disgust. The murderous exploitation of the Congo (this section echoes Adam Hochschild's best-selling book on the subject); the ways which Europeans exaggerated ethnic affiliation and favored one group over another as a method of control; how the artificiality of Africa's national boundaries has fostered two-bit dictatorships and recurrent military coups--none of these topics is new, but Reader integrates them in a coherent whole. "Thus the tribal distinctions that were established to facilitate administration during the colonial period in Africa became substitutes for the social and economic distinctions which have inspired political reform throughout history and around the world." In other words, economic and social discontent became polarized "along ethnic lines--with dreadful consequences."
It's impossible in a brief review to do justice to a book whose historical scope is so broad, and it would be easy to pick out areas of omission (e.g., north Africa is largely ignored, especially the Berber influence and the Islamic incursions). Suffice it to say that this volume, in spite of its ambition and shortcomings, makes for endlessly fascinating reading. |
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