Book Review: Writing African History

If you have decided that the study of African history is for you then I recommend getting hold of, and thoroughly digesting, this book. It will enhance your understanding of where historical source material on Africa is obtained from and how it is used to further our understanding of the subject.

This excellent book, curiously, suffers from a split-personality. The first and last chapters, written by John Edward Philips (College of Humanities, Hirosaki University), are an informative overview of the place African history has in history studies in general, how it fits with all those related (and now-a-days heavily intermingled) fields in the social sciences and humanities, and how a student would set about writing African history. This is first year undergraduate (or very able senior school) level material.

Between these two chapters are 18 essays on different sources used by African historians and the process by which they use such sources to do African history. The first half of the inner section deals with sources of data for African history. Individual essays look at the use (and potential misuse) of archaeological data, historical linguistics, physical anthropology, archaeobiology, oral tradition and oral history, as well as the opportunities given to African historians through Arabic, European, and colonial documentary sources. The second half looks at how some of these sources are used to develop our understanding – and covers social and economic history, art history, women's and gender history and the use of oral sources.

An introduction by Daniel McCall makes a reasonable attempt at pulling all these disparate areas of study together in a synergistic whole.

This book is one which should be on every Africanist's bookshelf. It has something for the novice undergrad and the conscientious postgraduate (who wants to expand their horizons within the field of African history). If it is not on your college reading list, buy it for your own edification and become that rare breed in academia – the renaissance man (or woman) who is aware of developments in, and understands the methodology of, related fields of study.