Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415234794 ISBN 13: 9780415234795

Publisher: Routledge, 2002

Synopsis

With nearly two hundred and fifty individually signed entries, the Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History explores the ways in which the peoples of Africa and their politics, states, societies, economies, environments, cultures and arts were transformed during the course of that Janus-faced century. Overseen by a diverse and distinguished international team of consultant editors, the Encyclopedia provides a thorough examination of the global and local forces that shaped the changes that the continent underwent. Combining essential factual description with evaluation and analysis, the entries tease out patterns from across the continent as a whole, as well as within particular regions and countries: it is the first work of its kind to present such a comprehensive overview of twentieth-century African history. With full indexes and a thematic entry list, together with ample cross-referencing and suggestions for further reading, the Encyclopedia will be welcomed as an essential work of reference by both scholar and student of twentieth-century African history.

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2004

About this title

About the Author

Educated in Malawi, Britain and Canada, Paul Tiyambi Zeleza is a distinguished historian, writer and scholar. He has taught at universities in Malawi, Kenya, Jamaica, Canada and the United States. He is the author of over a dozen books, two of which won the 1994 Noma Award and the 1998 Special Commendation of the Noma Award, respectively, Africa's most prestigious book award.

Dickson Eyoh is a Cameroonian-born Political Scientist currently teaching at the Univeristy of Toronto, Canada. Educated in Cameroon, the United States and Canada, he has also taught at York University in Canada and University of Jos in Nigeria.

From Booklist

The focus of this dictionary-style work is the past century of African history, covering decades of tremendous change, including resistance to colonial rule and the reestablishment of African independence. Global forces that had an impact on the continent are also considered. An article, for example, on the cold war details the effect of the conflict between the U.S and USSR on Africa. Although the emphasis is clearly the twentieth century, entries place their topics in context: the long article on Christianity considers the churches established in Egypt in the first centuries after Christ as well as the nineteenth-century missionary movements before considering modern developments. Articles on Islam, Arabic language, and slavery are similarly contextual. The scope includes North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.

Articles range from 600 words for briefer treatments of some 58 cities up to 4,000 words on major themes such as Agrarian change, Decolonization, and Health and disease. In the midrange are overviews of regions, countries, and language groups and entries on specific topics such as Migrant labor and Transport. A useful thematic entry list in the fore matter groups entries into 15 categories so the reader can see related articles. The index is very important because many topics are addressed only within larger articles. There are no biographical entries; even well-known current or historical figures such as Nelson Mandela or Julius Nyerere are mentioned in the text as appropriate to the topic but have no separate entries. One must use the index to find discussions related to women because there is no overview essay. Entries are accompanied by cross-references and suggestions for further reading, including many very recent publications. A map of the continent and perhaps a time line of major events would have been nice additions.

The language is too academic for school libraries, but at the college level, even if a library owns the excellent four-volume Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (Scribner, 1997), this is a worthy addition, especially for the thematic essays. For more detailed biographical and local information, the African Historical Dictionaries series (Scarecrow Press) would be complementary in academic and large public libraries. RBB
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About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0415234794
• ISBN 13: 9780415234795
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 672
• Editor: Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Dickson Eyoh