Precolonial Black Africa – Cheikh Anta Diop
Precolonial Black Africa is the comparison of the political and social systems of Europe and black Africa. From antiquity to the formation of modern states. The book demonstrates the black contribution to the development of Western civilisation.
Diop directs the reader’s attention throughout the book mainly to cultures and old empires of West Africa. Chiefly referenced are Songhai, Ghana, Mali, and Cayor. He compares the lives of the masses of African people and the nobility with that of those in Europe at similar time periods.
West Africa after the coming of Islam is talked about extensively. He looks at how the religion often blended in well with local beliefs. He ends the book discussing the origins and similarities of names in West Africa to many found in the Nile Basin going back to pharaonic times. Much of the information that Diop presents comes from earlier sources such as the Tarikh es Sudan, a chronicle written in Arabic in the 17th century.
Unabridged account into the psychology of the age with stark contrasts to Western thought by one of the worlds leading modern scholars on African History.
