Africa's Past, Our Future, livre ebook

Read an excerpt Listen to an interview with the author on WVXU

Africa's Past, Our Future engages the history of the African continent through the perspective of global issues such as political instability, economic development, and climate change. Since the past may offer alternative models for thinking about our collective future, this book promotes an appreciation for African social, economic, and political systems that have endured over the long-term and that offer different ways of thinking about a sustainable future. Introducing readers to the wide variety of sources from which African history is constructed, the book's ten chapters cover human evolution, the domestication of plants and animals, climate change, social organization, the slave trade and colonization, development, and contemporary economics and politics.

Introduction: Why We Need African History
Part 1. The Long Durée
1. Human Evolution and Becoming Human
2. Agriculture in History
3. Africans' Adaptions to Climate Change: Past and Present
Part 2. Cultural Differentiation
4. Heterarchy and Hierarchy
5. Cultural Diffusion
6. Matriliny
Part 3. Globalization
7. Colonialism and Development (with Heidi Frontani)
8. Africa's Development Assistance (with Heidi Frontani)
9. African Economics
10. Failed States? The Successful Somalia