African History: A Very Short Introduction

African History: A Very Short Introduction
Author: John Parker
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2007-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192802488

Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

West Africa Under Colonial Rule

West Africa Under Colonial Rule
Author: Michael Crowder
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2023-07-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000958116

Originally published in 1968, this book became the standard work on the colonial period in the vast and varied areas of the coast and hinterland of West Africa. It is a comprehensive survey of the domination of West Africa by the British and the French, which challenges the accepted view of the colonialists that their rule was generally beneficial. Penetrating descriptions of the colonial economic system are given, and the quality of colonial administration is analysed, as well as the impact of two World Wars.

Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa

Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa
Author: Martin A. Klein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1998-07-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521596787

A history of slavery during the 19th and 20th centuries in three former French colonies.

Britain, France and the Decolonization of Africa

Britain, France and the Decolonization of Africa
Author: Andrew W.M. Smith
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1911307746

Looking at decolonization in the conditional tense, this volume teases out the complex and uncertain ends of British and French empire in Africa during the period of ‘late colonial shift’ after 1945. Rather than view decolonization as an inevitable process, the contributors together explore the crucial historical moments in which change was negotiated, compromises were made, and debates were staged. Three core themes guide the analysis: development, contingency and entanglement. The chapters consider the ways in which decolonization was governed and moderated by concerns about development and profit. A complementary focus on contingency allows deeper consideration of how colonial powers planned for ‘colonial futures’, and how divergent voices greeted the end of empire. Thinking about entanglements likewise stresses both the connections that existed between the British and French empires in Africa, and those that endured beyond the formal transfer of power.

Disrupting Africa

Disrupting Africa
Author: Olufunmilayo B. Arewa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 665
Release: 2021-07-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1009064223

In the digital era, many African countries sit at the crossroads of a potential future that will be shaped by digital-era technologies with existing laws and institutions constructed under conditions of colonial and post-colonial authoritarian rule. In Disrupting Africa, Olufunmilayo B. Arewa examines this intersection and shows how it encompasses existing and new zones of contestation based on ethnicity, religion, region, age, and other sources of division. Arewa highlights specific collisions between the old and the new, including in the 2020 #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, which involved young people engaging with varied digital era technologies who provoked a violent response from rulers threatened by the prospect of political change. In this groundbreaking work, Arewa demonstrates how lawmaking and legal processes during and after colonialism continue to frame contexts in which digital technologies are created, implemented, regulated, and used in Africa today.

The Biafran War and Postcolonial Humanitarianism

The Biafran War and Postcolonial Humanitarianism
Author: Lasse Heerten
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2017-09-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107111803

A global history of 'Biafra', providing a new explanation for the ascendance of humanitarianism in a postcolonial world.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Author: Walter Rodney
Publisher: Verso Books
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1788731204

“A call to arms in the class struggle for racial equity”—the hugely influential work of political theory and history, now powerfully introduced by Angela Davis (Los Angeles Review of Books). This legendary classic on European colonialism in Africa stands alongside C.L.R. James’ Black Jacobins, Eric Williams’ Capitalism & Slavery, and W.E.B. Dubois’ Black Reconstruction. In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.

Contesting French West Africa

Contesting French West Africa
Author: Harry Gamble
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 436
Release: 2017-09
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1496202325

After the turn of the twentieth century, schools played a pivotal role in the construction of French West Africa. But as this dynamic, deeply researched study reveals, the expanding school system also became the site of escalating conflicts. As French authorities worked to develop truncated schools for colonial "subjects," many African students and young elites framed educational projects of their own. Weaving together a complex narrative and rich variety of voices, Harry Gamble explores the high stakes of colonial education. With the disruptions of World War II, contests soon took on new configurations. Seeking to forestall postwar challenges to colonial rule, French authorities showed a new willingness to envision broad reforms, in education as in other areas. Exploiting the new context of the Fourth Republic and the extension of citizenship, African politicians demanded an end to separate and inferior schools. Contesting French West Africa critically examines the move toward educational integration that took shape during the immediate postwar period. Growing linkages to the metropolitan school system ultimately had powerful impacts on the course of decolonization and the making of postcolonial Africa.

Africa's Last Colonial Currency

Africa's Last Colonial Currency
Author: Fanny Pigeaud
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 9780745341798

How the CFA Franc enabled France to continue its colonies in Africa.