Toyin Falola

What all do you know about African history? Sadly, the answer is typically very little. Yet, so much of our own history is influenced by the large continent. Toyin Falola gives the one who wants to know more about Africa a great resource in Key Events in African History: A Reference Guide.

What I look for in a nonfiction book is something that is full of information, easily readable, and has supplementary material to assist me in processing the information. The layout has to be appealing. The words have to keep me engaged. This book does all that.

Falola starts with the beginning of mankind and works through the history until 2000. There are thirty-six chapters that are very in depth without too much information to lose a reader. There are many images such as maps, pictures, and charts that help further explain the text and give the visual learners something to grab onto. There are many sections within each chapter to help break up the text and for easy reference when trying to find material already read.

Each chapter has it's own bibliography and 'Further to Read' list which makes it easy to research further. The index is well developed as well.

If you are a student needing to research African history, this is a book you should have. It is laid out well for research and gives the student additional material to look for to help expand their research sources.

Even those who just like to read history, add this one to your library. You won't regret it.

Note: This book was borrowed from the school library for a research paper.… (more)

"This volume seeks to identify and examine two categories of colonial and postcolonial knowledge production about Africa. These two broad categories are "environment" and "landscape," and both are useful and problematic to explore. Discussions about African environments often concentrate on Africans as perpetrators of their own land, causing degradation from lack of knowledge and technology. "Landscape" defines the category of knowledge produced by foreigners about Africa, where Africans remain part of the scenery and yield no agency over their surroundings. To flesh out these categories and explore their creation and how they have been deployed to shape colonial and postcolonial discourses on Africa, this volume investigates the "technological pastoral," the points of convergence and conflict between Western notions of pastoral Africa and the introduction of colonial technology, scientific ideas and commodification of land and animals."--Publisher's web site.… (more)