A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present
Richard J. Reid
Language: English
Pages: 408
ISBN: 0470658983
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Updated and revised to emphasise long-term perspectives on current issues facing the continent, the new 2nd Edition of A History of Modern Africa recounts the full breadth of Africa's political, economic, and social history over the past two centuries.
- Adopts a long-term approach to current issues, stressing the importance of nineteenth-century and deeper indigenous dynamics in explaining Africa's later twentieth-century challenges
- Places a greater focus on African agency, especially during the colonial encounter
- Includes more in-depth coverage of non-Anglophone Africa
- Offers expanded coverage of the post-colonial era to take account of recent developments, including the conflict in Darfur and the political unrest of 2011 in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya
Sudan: Darfur and the Failure of an African State
Politics in Africa: A New Introduction
A New Paradigm of the African State: Fundi wa Afrika
brutality, and the fact that it did not seem to be “improving” Africans’ lives in any meaningful way. The “mission” came under critical scrutiny, or was rejected outright, as in the case of North African spiritual and nationalist movements able to draw on deeper historical experiences of dealing with Europe. An important outcome of this was a move toward greater colonial intervention in African societies and an enlargement of the state itself, at least in sub-Saharan Africa. To a considerable
factors behind low birth-rates in the region during the early twentieth century. The imposition of colonial rule had other adverse effects on the environment. Colonial warfare during the 1880s and 1890s, and the bitter campaigns waged to suppress anti-colonial uprisings, resulted in widespread destruction in many areas. In German East Africa, up to a third of the population of the affected area may have died as a result of the war fought to crush the Maji Maji rebellion, while female fertility
permanent nonetheless. For our purposes, the most important “transition” – in fact the nineteenth century witnessed a series of “transitions” – was that from the slave trade to so-called “legitimate commerce” in Atlantic Africa. There was no single or sudden transformation: an export trade in human beings, much to the despair of European humanitarians as well as, of course, millions of Africans, continued down to the 1860s. The difference between this phase of the slave trade, and that which
the early 1990s has been one of crises and solutions; a range of actors – including African governments themselves – have sought to manage modernity, as it were, seeking solutions to the challenges of debt and development. Working through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charity and aid-giving bodies, through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Europe and North America have become, if anything, more interventionist than they were during the era of the East–West standoff,
timescales, and only very broad patterns of change; the written words of foreigners are riddled with the cultural and social prejudices and misunderstandings characteristic of outsiders, though some are more problematic and insensitive than others. Indigenous oral histories themselves were prone to change and distortion over time, and as a general rule favoured the authors’ particular lineage as well as reflecting current political circumstances. Nonetheless, used with caution, these sources have