AFRICA: Africa World Press Guide

compiled and edited by WorldViews

In a writing career than spanned more than four decades, historian Basil Davidson produced more than twenty books that have helped Western readers understand Africa-behind-the-stereotypes. Any of Davidson's books would be a good starting point for the general reader. His most recent book, The Search for Africa: History, Culture, Politics (Davidson 1994), is a collection of short essays that Davidson wrote throughout his illustrious career on controversial topics such as "the invention of racism, " the history of Africa, "Africanism," the roots of antiapartheid, pluralism in colonial African societies, African peasants and revolution, and the ambiguities of nationalism.

Other titles by Davidson include

• The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (1992);
• African Civilization Revisited (1991);
• Modern Africa (1990);
• The Story of Africa (1984); and
• Let Freedom Come: Africa in Modern History (1978).

A more systematically arranged all-encompassing approach to the history of Africa is found in the eight-volume General History of Africa edited by Africa specialists and co-published by UNESCO (Paris), Heinemann Publishers (Oxford), and the Univ ersity of California Press (Berkeley). "For a long time," Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow (UNESCO Director-General, 1974-87) wrote in his preface to the eighth volume in the series, "all kinds of myths and prejudices concealed the true history of Africa from the worl d at large. African socities were looked upon as societies that could have no history." In an effort to counter these myths and prejudices and to enlighten the general public, UNESCO undertook the production of this authoritative multi-disciplinary, multi -faceted history of the continent and its peoples.

Titles in the UNESCO General History of Africa series are

• Methodology and African Prehistory (J. Ki-Zerbo, ed.);
• Ancient Civilizations of Africa (G. Mokhtar, ed.);
• Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century (M. El Fasi, ed.);
• Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century (D. T. Niane, ed.);
• Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (B. A. Ogot, ed.);
• The Nineteenth Century until the 1880s (J. F. A. Ajayi, ed.);
• Africa under Foreign Domination, 1880-1935 (A. A. Boahen, ed.); and
• Africa since 1935 (Ali A. Mazrui, ed.).

Other noteworthy general histories of Africa include The African History in Documents series edited by historian Robert O. Collins (University of California, Santa Barbara). Titles in this series are

• Western African History (Collins 1990),
• Eastern African History (Collins 1990), and
• Central and South African History (Collins 1996).

Collins is also editing another set of historical textbooks in Markus Wiener's Problems in the History of Modern Africa series. The first two volume in the series are entitled Problems in African History: The Precolonial Centuries (Collins 1993) and Historical Problems of Imperial Africa (Collins 1994). The third volume, Problems in the History of Modern Africa, appeared in 1996.

Ali A. Mazrui, the editor of the eighth volume in the UNESCO series, produced a highly acclaimed book and hosted a companion television series in the mid-1980s that have stood the test of time as general introductions to Africa. See The Africans: A Triple Heritage (Mazrui 1986) and the 9-part video series with the same title. Another notable video series was produced by Basil Davidson: Africa (Davidson 1984; 8 parts). The Mazrui and Davidson videos are available from many university-ba sed African studies centers, and from Church World Service (Elkhart) and other film outlets.

The videotape to view and/or show before any other, however, is What Do We Know about Africa?, a 25-minute video produced by Barbara Brown and the African Studies Center at Boston University. This eye-opening video challenges viewers to identify and analyze the many stereotypes that exist regarding the African continent and its peoples. Problematic terms such as "tribe," "jungle," "superstitious," and "primitive" are examined in a forthright but non-threatening manner. Even the most enlightened viewers are likely to trip over at least one unexamined bias or misperception brought to light in this video.

What Do We Know about Africa? is available for rental or purchase from the African Studies Center, Boston University, 270 Bay State Rd., Boston, MA 02215 USA. Companion study guide included.