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Over 300 authors, more than one-third of them African, have contributed close to 1,100 articles, most of which have further reading suggestions. The majority of the articles are about 1,000 words in length, with longer surveys of regions and broad topics such as Community in African society or Political systems. About one-third of the matter is devoted to ancient Africa through the eighteenth century, covering topics such as the Iron Age, the Songhay empire, and the Yoruba states. The remainder details the social, economic, and political history of each region and modern state, from the nineteenth century "scramble for Africa" through the colonial period to the postcolonial period to the recent past. There are entries on important modern cities as well as some biographical entries and articles on topics such as clothing and language.
The fore matter of the book includes a list of entries A-Z and also a thematic grouping, which is primarily chronological. Using both the entry lists and the detailed index are essential, as the organization and naming of the entries can be a little confusing. For example, a reader going directly to Slave trade will find two entries that begin with those words but that are specific only to the parallels with the ivory and arms trade; most of the entry headings for articles on the slave trade begin with the word slavery. In the index, however, one can find well over 100 references to slave trade in various entries.
One of the criticisms of both the UNESCO and Cambridge histories was the absence of information on women and gender issues. This set does address some of the issues in the essay on historiography of women on the continent, although the article is only 2 pages plus an extensive reading list. In the index, there are only 17 other references to about 30 pages total of text under women and 3 more topics listed under gender. It seems there is still work to do--there are close to three times as many references to missionary activity as to women.
Newly commissioned maps of countries and regions are crisp and clear. Other illustrations in black and white are rather small and of varying clarity. The level of the individual entries varies--even the educated reader might find some a bit academic in tone and detail. For information that is more general, many nonspecialist readers may find the Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara more approachable if northern Africa is not a focus of inquiry. Encyclopedia of African History is not very approachable at the high-school level, but most university libraries and large public libraries will want to acquire what is certainly the most in-depth, current reference work on the history of the continent as a whole. Margaret Power
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