Reimaging Africa : lifting the veil of ignorance / / Adeyinka A. Adewale, Stefan Schepers

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910751390803321
• Autore: Adewale Adeyinka
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cham : , : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2023; ©2023
• ISBN: 3-031-40360-6
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xii, 171 pages) : illustrations
• Altri autori (Persone): SchepersStefan
• Disciplina: 327.6009
• Soggetti: Africa Foreign relations History; Africa History To 1884; Africa Politics and government
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliography and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- A Veil of Ignorance -- 2 Pre-colonial Political Order in Africa -- Introduction -- Egypt and North African Kingdoms -- The Sahel and West African Kingdoms and Empires -- Central African Kingdoms and Empires -- Southern African Kingdoms and Empires -- East African Kingdoms and Empires -- Conclusion -- 3 Pillars of Africa's Ancient Economies -- Introduction -- Economic Structures in Pre-Colonial Africa -- Economic Activities in Pre-Colonial Africa -- Crops, Livestock and Fish -- Manufacturing -- Mining -- Currencies in Pre-Colonial Africa -- Going Global -- The Economic Decline of Pre-Colonial Africa -- 4 African Pre-Colonial Social and Political Structures -- Introduction -- Communitarianism as a Basis for African Social Values -- Families and Clans as Basic Units of African Societies -- From Clans to City-States: The Evolution of African Societies -- African Pre-Colonial Socio-Political Structures and Systems -- Colonisation and African Socio-Political Structures -- Implications for African Values Systems -- Conclusions -- 5 Colonialism and the Struggle for Independence -- Introduction: The Twilight of the Colonial Period -- African Nationalism in the Struggle for Independence -- Colonial Oppression -- Missionary Churches and Education -- World Wars I and II -- Europe's Golden Age of Economic Growth -- African Post-Colonial Independence -- 6 ; An Interdependency Stuck in the Past -- The Original Sin -- The Long Twilight of Colonialism -- Reparation of the Minds -- Forging a Constructive Interdependence -- Creating a Virtuous Cycle -- 7 Facing the Future -- Bibliography -- Index.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book, through a politico-historical analysis, aims to provide a more balanced perspective regarding the nature of Africa's relations with other global regions. It emphasizes the sophisticated nature of pre-colonial African politico-historical commentaries often overlooked or simplified. As such, the narrative avoids the usual misrepresentations which impress that African-European interactions are a history of European actions in an Africa generally devoid of anything similar to the cultures, institutions and abilities of Europe. Further, it contests the historical narrative that indigenous Africans have had no real active role vis-à-vis an assertive, dominating Europe in historical times. Within this book, the contestation of such narratives with evidence-based counter perspectives is of particular benefit for our current educational, social and political contexts.