ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Africa, but not as you know it
BOB NEWLAND applauds a demonstration of the existence of a substantial African history that contributed much to world development long before European colonialism
ANCIENT SPLENDOUR: The Great Zimbabwe dates back to the Gokomere people, an eastern Bantu subgroup, which lived in the area from around 200AD and flourished from 500AD to about 800AD. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (2.79 sq mi) and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak. It is suggested that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of 'dzimba-hwe,' which means ‘venerated houses’ in the Zezuru dialect of Shona - usually the houses or graves of chiefs. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Infamously during the white government of Rhodesia it pressured archeologists to deny its construction by black Africans
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence
Zeinab Badawi, WH Allen, £25
ZEINAB BADAWI, reflecting today’s widely recognised view, begins this amazing story: “Everyone is originally from Africa and this book is therefore for everyone.”
She spent eight years touring Africa, researching this mammoth project. Her purpose was to write an “accessible and relatively comprehensive history of Africa” which, unlike that of most people’s experience which began with the arrival of Europeans, “reflected the continent’s rich history told by Africans themselves.”
The scene is set by a detailed exploration of several phases of man’s development on the African continent to arrive at today’s Homo sapiens-sapiens. This encompasses the first large-scale movements of populations of which there have been so many since.
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