Yeah, this book broke my heart a bit. Zeinab Badawi's An African History of Africa is absolutely packed with interesting tidbits, people, and ideas. There is so much to like about it. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of information is also what sinks it.

Badawi looks at the entire continent of Africa from literally the dawn of man until now. She jumps around to different time periods and focuses each chapter on a specific part of Africa. She also did tremendous amount of first hand research as she documents embedding with people living in a traditional village or gazing directly upon the monuments she is presenting. Each chapter also quotes at least a few native Africans to discuss various topics and why this is an African history of Africa. Badawi also doesn't shy away from diving into more controversial aspects. For example, she even mentions the recent uproar when a recent TV series presented Cleopatra as black. All of this is great stuff so why am I heartbroken?

Well, the problem is that Badawi is covering so much ground, both literally and figuratively, that nothing is examined enough and the writing is often choppy. I recall in one chapter that Badawi starts to dig into the history of slavery and how Africans were a part of this horrible stain on humanity. She presents a very intelligent breakdown of the African view and I was hooked. But then we moved onto another topic which was tangentially related. It's such a shame because there are parts where Badawi slows down and it is crystal clear that she can write well. Sadly, I think the scope was just too big and forced her to cut way too much to keep this book from being ten times longer. I would read that book.

All that said, there is a lot of great information in this book. I can't score it higher because of the issues I mentioned, but if you go in knowing what you may run into, I think there is still tons of worthwhile material.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Mariner Books.)

While I don't mean to discredit many great Western authors, I'm often tired of the "another cis white male explaining the world" approach that still prevails in history and nonfiction writing. So I applaud any initiative to provide more nuanced perspectives-and there is plenty of that in this book. Of course, as a one-volume chronicle of an entire diverse continent, it can feel a bit encyclopedic at times, but as a whole it is so fresh and eye-opening that I find it worth recommending.

Thanks to the publisher, Mariner Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This book is a general overview of a sampling of African history. I went into this book hoping for something … a bit more. As someone who knows about Egypt more through pop culture and historical fiction books rather than actual study, and who knows very little about the rich cultures that make up Africa, I was hoping this might be a good place to begin learning something new. Instead, this read more like a combination reference and trivia book.

The writing is flat. It’s not even dry — which I don’t mind as much in reference books — but it’s just not well put together for me. It’s just a collection of trivia and facts laid out in roughly chronological order. I appreciate that the author tries to bring famous names to draw readers in, such as President Obama’s grandfather, Queen Kahina, Mansa Musa and others … but there’s just no life to any of this. There’s no sense of excitement or interest on the author’s part to draw me in, nothing to make me want to read more.

What this book did do for me, however, is want to find something else, something with more a more, engaging, warmer style, something with a more clearly defined statement rather than a general overview to read. So while the book, on its own, is … fine, it’s just not for me. It doesn’t work with my preferred style of learning and I’m left looking elsewhere.

But … it did start me on the path to wanting tot learn more, so there’s that, at least.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for giving me the ARC.

While nit comprehensive, this book gives a really good overview of African history, stretching from prehistory through to th modern era. The book is set up in segments, with the chapters focusing on one civilization to represent a period if time and going in to depth about it. The book is more of a popular history, written in an engaging way that makes it easy to read and follow.

Although this took a while to pick up, I'm glad it was more expansive in view than African Icons: Ten People Who Built a Continent, which mostly touched on Egypt.

Africa is one of the most, if not the most, diverse continent on the planet. It is not just Egypt. It certainly isn't the Egypt of the past, ruled by Macedonian Greeks.

This picks up after Egypt. Several countries from varying areas are discussed, and the role colonization played in depriving citizens of natural resources. A map shows a tiny area that wasn't colonized. It's hard to say which European nation did the most damage, but know it was extensive.

My thirst wasn't quite quenched here. I'd like to delve a little deeper into each country's own history. As always, if you have recommendations, by authors of that background, please send.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books

This is fantastically detailed, and far-reaching history that I think be very, very useful in filling in the major historical knowledge blindspots on the African continent that unfortunately I still think is still all-too=widespread - and that's honestly putting in kindly. I myself, writing as someone who consumes a hefty amount of history books ever year, is no exception, and was able to learn an incredible amount from Badawi's "An African History of Africa."

This is a title that would make an excellent addition to my library, and I'm excited to add it to our to-purchase wishlist for our next round of book buying.