So, I am a History student at Eastern Michigan University. I am incredibly interested in African history, particularly pre-slavery. I realize that your subject is PoC in European art, but I am wondering if you might have some suggestions about good books on African history. I email my university's one African specialist, but haven't gotten an answer (my assumption is that he's busy), so I thought that I'd ask you. Apparently, there is a character limit to these sorts of things! Thank u 4 ur time
This is a list of print sources that have been recommended by followers. It’s literally copypasted from my Static Resources page:
Connah, Graham. African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Ehret, Christopher. An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BC to AD 400. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1998.
Ehret, Christopher. The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2002.
McIntosh, Susan K. Beyond Chiefdoms: Pathways to Complexity in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Northrup, David. Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Oliver, Roland and Anthony Atmore. Medieval Africa, 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Vansina, Jan. How Societies Are Born: Governance in West-Central Africa Before 1600. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004.
Vansina, Jan. Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
Thornton, John K. The Kingdom of the Kongo: Civil Wars and Transition, 1641-1718. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983.
Bhila, H.H.K. Trade and Politics in a Shona Kingdom: the Manyika and the Portuguese and African Neighbors, 1575-1902. London: Longman Group Ltd., 1982.
Pikirayi, Innocent. The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and Decline in Southern Zambezian States. New York: Altamira Press, 2001.
Horton, Mark and John Middleton. The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile People. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.
Pearson, Michael N. Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Lamphear, John. The Traditional History of the Jie of Uganda. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
Burstein, Stanley, ed. Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum. Princeton, NJ: Marcus Weiner Publishing, 1998.
Welsby, Derek A. The Kingdoms of Kush. London: British Museum Press, 1996.
Welsby, Derek A. The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. London: British Museum Press, 2002.
Hall, Richard. Empires of the Monsoon: A History of the Indian Ocean and its Invaders. HarperCollins, 1998.
Alpers, Edward A. The Indian Ocean in World History. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Austen, Ralph A. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopians: A History. Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn abd Al-Kadir. Futuh Al-Habashah, or the conquest of Abyssinia. Edited by Sandford Arthur Strong. 1894.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Baṭṭūṭaẗ. Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. Markus Wiener, 1994.