I'm very interested in history and the impacts of the past.
I'm looking for a book about the beginning (as well as the end) of european colonization of Africa and the results of european imperialism (why Africa is as it is today).
Does anyone know of a good book that covers these subjects?
(Please, add the reason why you think it is good)
it depends whose perspective you want!
Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks gives an excellent account of resistance to colonialism and the psychological impact of colonialism on the natives (talking about France's occupation of Algeria and the Algerian revolution)
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o 'Decolonising the Mind' is also worth reading if you are interested in African literature
Patrick Brantlinger's Rule of Darkness is a pretty good overview of British colonialism
and although not specifically about Africa, but about colonialism in general, Ed Said's Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism are essential reading
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
You may find The State of Africa by Martin Meredith a useful introduction. Meredith is a journalist/historian who has lived and worked in different parts of Africa since the mid 1960s - his book is a chronological account, written in an accessible style, of post-Second World War events in the continent. The Introduction gives an overview of nineteenth century colonisation. It is not without bias - it is a subject on which I believe it would be hard to write without reference to former attitudes on either side - but it gives a succinct outline of events in the many different African experiences of colonisation and its aftermath and is useful background to the present-day situation in the continent.
A work of fiction, but a good read ....
about the Mau Mau uprising: Something of Value by Robert Ruark
what about the book "things fall apart?" i cant remember the author at this time...is it achebe?
While a bit more tangential, Conrad's Heart of Darkness gives a peripheral perspective of the African Imperial age.
http://unidentifiedappellation.blogspot.com/
To be honest, there isn't one or two books that could cover the incredibly vast and varying histories of colonization in all the many countries of Africa. There is no nation in Africa that was never not invaded or colonized to my knowledge, from invading BCE Arabians to modern European takeovers. But you could do a series of readings on different regions.
For a really good start on Western colonization in Africa I highly recommend David Birmingham's Portugal and Africa (2004). Take a look if you like at the publisher's blurb
It all started (Western-wise anyhow) with Portugal in East Africa, and Birmingham has been a researcher on the topic for forty years.
Have to second the vote for Edward Said. Though not specifically referring to Africa, a study of traditional Western attitudes to, and colonization of the East, couldn't be undertaken without Said's work, especially Orientalism.Ed Said's Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism are essential reading
Don't forget Negritude writers... Cesaire particularly, though vaguely African.
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.
- John Berryman
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