The Cambridge History of Africa

Africa

John D. Hargreaves reviews two publications exploring African history in the 20th century.

The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 7, from 1905 to 1940
Edited by A.D.Roberts,xx+1063 pp. (Cambridge University Press, 1986)
Africa and the Second World War
Edited by David Killingray and Richard Rathbone, xii + 283 pp. (Macmillan, 1986)

Quantifiers in the University Grants Committee may be gratified to note that the last volume of The Cambridge History of Africa to appear is the second largest, and its bibliographies by far the longest. That splendid compiler of indexes Marion Johnson fails by only one page to equal her own record (seventy pages in Volume II). More important if more subjectively, this (in the judgement of a reviewer who has not studied Volumes I or II) is also the most successful volume of the series. This may be partly because the colonial period was that in which the historical experience of the continent was more unified than ever 'before, so that detailed regional surveys can be reviewed in relation to common themes. Between 1905 and 1940 most African populations first suffered often catastrophic declines, then began a. relentless increase; they were drawn more closely into the international exchange economy, as motor-lorries extended the scrappy communication grid formed by railways; they became more intensively governed by the invading forces of the preceding period; and their diverse responses to these changes began to assume the form of political nationalism.

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The Cambridge History of Africa

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