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"This book is the liveliest account of African history ever written, covering over [one] thousand years of trans-Saharan trade. "Finely written and researched. ... This edition will no doubt whet the appetites of a fresh generation of scholars and students for greater knowledge of parts of Africa still surprisingly little-known to the outside world." -- Journal of Islamic Studies "A unique source book." - The New York Times "Utterly enthralling ... splendidly romantic." -- The New Yorker Read more

Bloomsbury presents Anansi's Gold by Yepoka Yeebo, read by Jude Owusu. New Yorker Best Book of the Year "A fascinating story brilliantly told.”—The Boston Globe * "A non-fiction masterpiece."—Philadelphia Inquirer The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century’s longest-running and most spectacular frauds. When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn’t already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation’s inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country’s gold overseas. Into this big lie stepped one of history’s most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece—if only you would “invest” in Blay-Miezah’s fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and ‘80s, he and his accomplices—including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon’s former attorney general—scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam “one of the most fascinating—and lucrative—in modern history.” In Anansi’s Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah’s ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana’s missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call “history” writes itself into being, one lie at a time. Read more

“There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women,” explains the leader of the 1983–87 revolution in Burkina Faso. Workers and peasants in that West African country established a popular revolutionary government and began to combat the hunger, illiteracy, and economic backwardness imposed by imperialist domination.Also available in Spanish (ISBN: 9780873489911), French (ISBN: 9780873489942), and Farsi (ISBN: 9789649045801). “Explains the history of women’s oppression in terms of the class struggle.…The speeches are easy to comprehend, full of respect for women.” —Journal of Social Development in Africa Read more

**New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice** To save ancient Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven in this “fast-paced narrative that is…part intellectual history, part geopolitical tract, and part out-and-out thriller” (The Washington Post) from the author of The Falcon Thief.In the 1980s, a young adventurer and collector for a government library, Abdel Kader Haidara, journeyed across the Sahara Desert and along the Niger River, tracking down and salvaging tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts that were crumbling in the trunks of desert shepherds. His goal: preserve this crucial part of the world’s patrimony in a gorgeous library. But then Al Qaeda showed up at the door. “Part history, part scholarly adventure story, and part journalist survey…Joshua Hammer writes with verve and expertise” (The New York Times Book Review) about how Haidara, a mild-mannered archivist from the legendary city of Timbuktu, became one of the world’s greatest smugglers by saving the texts from sure destruction. With bravery and patience, Haidara organized a dangerous operation to sneak all 350,000 volumes out of the city to the safety of southern Mali. His heroic heist “has all the elements of a classic adventure novel” (The Seattle Times), and is a reminder that ordinary citizens often do the most to protect the beauty of their culture. His the story is one of a man who, through extreme circumstances, discovered his higher calling and was changed forever by it. Read more

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In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. My new friends have begun to suspect I haven't told them the full story of my life."Why did you leave Sierra Leone?""Because there is a war.""You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?""Yes, all the time.""Cool."I smile a little."You should tell us about it sometime.""Yes, sometime."This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty. Read more

Two captivating manuscripts in one book:Mansa Musa: A Captivating Guide to the Emperor of the Islamic Mali Empire in West Africa and How He Developed Timbuktu into a Major Center for TradeTimbuktu: A Captivating Guide to an Important Ancient City and How It Became a Part of the Wealthy Mali Empire during the Reign of Mansa MusaIn the grand scheme of things, very little is known of Mansa Musa’s life. We know that he was one of the greatest emperors of the Mali Empire. And we know that he was actually one of the richest men of all time due to the enormous gold deposits in West Africa that were under his dominion, but large parts of Mansa Musa’s life remain a mystery.We know, for example, that he later expanded the reach of the Mali Empire considerably, eventually incorporating the legendary Timbuktu into his realm. Such things certainly make for fascinating tales, but the truth is much of Mansa Musa’s early life is virtually unknown. This is largely due to the fact that Mansa Musa did not have a biography of his exploits written about him during the time in which he lived.Rather than a written record, the narrative of his exploits that are remembered come down to us through the lore of the griot—Mali’s oral storytellers. The tales that these bards spin are indeed riveting, but they tend to focus on certain key events in Mansa Musa’s later life. The epic journey of Mansa’s hajj to Mecca is covered, and so are some other key parts of his personal history. But many other aspects still draw a blank.Here in this text, however, we have really run the gamut when it comes to uncovering the life of Mansa Musa. Utilizing both the testimony of Arab chroniclers familiar with Mali and Mansa Musa, the oral stories of the griot, and archaeological evidence, we have put together a book that captures the essence of who Mansa Musa was and what he tried to accomplish. His story is like some great mosaic that has fractured over the centuries, but we have pieced it all together to present to you the best portrait possible of Mansa Musa and the life he lived.Some of the topics covered in part 1 of this book:The backstory of the Mali Empire and its foundersThe rise of Mansa Musa as the emperorThe transition of Mali from a pagan to a Muslim KingdomMansa Musa’s pilgrimage to MeccaThe incorporation of Timbuktu into the Mali EmpireMansa Musa’s successorsMansa Musa’s legacyAnd much more!Some of the topics covered in part 2 of this book:The foundation of Timbuktu and some believed translations of its nameThe life of the Tuaregs, the original people of TimbuktuThe creation of the Mali Empire and its acquisition of TimbuktuThe various mansas of the Mali Empire, including the great Mansa MusaThe collapse of the Mali EmpireThe creation and early stages of the Songhai EmpireThe various kings of the Songhai Empire who transformed TimbuktuThe collapse of the Songhai Empire and Morocco’s occupation in TimbuktuThe early Tuareg rebellions and the transfer of power in Timbuktu between the various groups still inhabiting the city during the Moroccan occupationThe French acquisition of Morocco and TimbuktuFrench Sudan’s (modern-day Mali’s) road to independenceThe creation of the Republic of MaliThe modern-day struggles in Timbuktu between the Tuareg rebels and the terrorist occupationsThe current state of Timbuktu and what’s in store in its futureSo if you want to learn more about Mansa Musa and Timbuktu, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button! Read more

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The Yoruba: A New History  is the first transdisciplinary study of the two-thousand-year journey of the Yoruba people, from their origins in a small corner of the Niger-Benue Confluence in present-day Nigeria to becoming one of the most populous cultural groups on the African continent. Weaving together archaeology with linguistics, environmental science with oral traditions, and material culture with mythology, Ogundiran examines the local, regional, and even global dimensions of Yoruba history. The Yoruba: A New History offers an intriguing cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and social history from ca. 300 BC to 1840. It accounts for the events, peoples, and practices, as well as the theories of knowledge, ways of being, and social valuations that shaped the Yoruba experience at different junctures of time. The result is a new framework for understanding the Yoruba past and present.---Winner of the 2022 Vinson Sutlive Prize (William and Mary College) for the best book that makes use of anthropological perspectives in order to examine historical contexts.---Winner of the 2022 Isaac O Delano Prize for the Outstanding Book in Yoruba Studies. Read more

In Senegal, the Muridiyya, a large Islamic Sufi order, is the single most influential religious organization, including among its numbers the nation’s president. Yet little is known of this sect in the West. Drawn from a wide variety of archival, oral, and iconographic sources in Arabic, French, and Wolof, Fighting the Greater Jihad offers an astute analysis of the founding and development of the order and a biographical study of its founder, Cheikh Ahmadu Bamba Mbakke.Cheikh Anta Babou explores the forging of Murid identity and pedagogy around the person and initiative of Amadu Bamba as well as the continuing reconstruction of this identity by more recent followers. He makes a compelling case for reexamining the history of Muslim institutions in Africa and elsewhere in order to appreciate believers’ motivation and initiatives, especially religious culture and education, beyond the narrow confines of political collaboration and resistance. Fighting the Greater Jihad also reveals how religious power is built at the intersection of genealogy, knowledge, and spiritual force, and how this power in turn affected colonial policy.Fighting the Greater Jihad will dramatically alter the perspective from which anthropologists, historians, and political scientists study Muslim mystical orders. Read more

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman journeys along a slave route in Ghana, following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast. She retraces the history of the Atlantic slave trade from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy.There were no survivors of Hartman's lineage, nor far-flung relatives in Ghana of whom she had come in search. She traveled to Ghana in search of strangers. The most universal definition of the slave is a stranger—torn from kin and country. To lose your mother is to suffer the loss of kin, to forget your past, and to inhabit the world as a stranger. As both the offspring of slaves and an American in Africa, Hartman, too, was a stranger. Her reflections on history and memory unfold as an intimate encounter with places—a holding cell, a slave market, a walled town built to repel slave raiders—and with people: an Akan prince who granted the Portuguese permission to build the first permanent trading fort in West Africa; an adolescent boy who was kidnapped while playing; a fourteen-year-old girl who was murdered aboard a slave ship.Eloquent, thoughtful, and deeply affecting, Lose Your Mother is a powerful meditation on history, memory, and the Atlantic slave trade. Read more

Whether we realize it or not, stories and characters from Timbuktu are everywhere in our modern-day lives.The great Mansa Musa was the most iconic king of the Mali Empire. Considered to be one of the richest men ever, Mansa Musa is not only the right answer to a commonly asked trivia question but also one of the inspirations behind Marvel’s Black Panther. Although the other kings who reigned over Timbuktu may not be known quite as well as Mansa Musa, their lives have also inspired stories we are quite familiar with today.Likely the second most well-known character in Timbuktu’s history is Mansa Sundiata, and although you may not know him by name, you may recognize his nickname: the Lion King. Many people throughout the years believe he may have served as an inspiration for Disney’s iconic movie.Timbuktu was once a conglomerate of trade, education, arts, and religion, attracting settlers and visitors from all over the world, similar to the massive cities of today. So, how did a city that could be titled the New York City or London of its time become synonymous with the middle of nowhere?Learn about Timbuktu’s various leaders, the people’s struggle to regain power, and why such a great city is now almost in ruins.In this book, you will learn about:The foundation of Timbuktu and some believed translations of its nameThe life of the Tuaregs, the original people of TimbuktuThe creation of the Mali Empire and its acquisition of TimbuktuThe various mansas of the Mali Empire, including the great Mansa MusaThe collapse of the Mali EmpireThe creation and early stages of the Songhai EmpireThe various kings of the Songhai Empire who transformed TimbuktuThe collapse of the Songhai Empire and Morocco’s occupation in TimbuktuThe early Tuareg rebellions and the transfer of power in Timbuktu between the various groups still inhabiting the city during the Moroccan occupationThe French acquisition of Morocco and TimbuktuFrench Sudan’s (modern-day Mali’s) road to independenceThe creation of the Republic of MaliThe modern-day struggles in Timbuktu between the Tuareg rebels and the terrorist occupationsThe current state of Timbuktu and what’s in store in its futureScroll up and click the “add to cart” button to learn all that and more about Timbuktu! Read more

An NPR Best Book of the Year The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts. Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship’s perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda’s journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown. From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community’s triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds. Read more

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As a black person living in the Americas or EuropeHave you ever wanted to know your roots?Have you ever wanted to know your history beyond slavery?Have you ever wanted to know what caused the transatlantic Slave trade?Have you ever wanted to know the identity of the African slaves?Have you ever wanted to know or understand the poor situation of black people around the world?Have you ever wanted to know why the rest of the world is developed but Africa remains underdeveloped?Have you ever wanted to know why black leaders wherever you find them are so corrupt?Your quest for the truth is over.All these questions are answered in this book. Read more

Are the tribes of Israel really "lost" or were they hidden on purpose as prophesied in Psalms 83? The Bible indicates that there would be a multi national conspiracy to hide Israel and wipe out the memory of who they really are. If this is true, then history as we know it has been hijacked, and it is only through searching that we will find the truth. In this book, you'll be forced to ask and answer the following questions:Why does a 1747 English map show the Kingdom of Juda marked as "The Slave Coast" in west Africa?Why do slave ledgers show slaves being registered with Hebrew names fresh off of the ships?Why did slaves sing songs in Hebrew and call out to Yah for help?Why did Christ mention the worldwide enslavement of Israel as a sign of the end of the age?Are we witnessing "the times of the Gentiles" and are they coming to an end?If you’re ready to start this eye opening adventure through scripture then add this book to your cart right now because you can't afford not to read it. ISRAEL IS STILL A NATION TO GOD AND ALWAYS WILL BE!“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” – Jeremiah 31:35-37 Read more

When wealthy Mississippi cotton planter Isaac Ross died in 1836, his will decreed that his plantation, Prospect Hill, should be liquidated and the proceeds from the sale be used to pay for his slaves' passage to the newly established colony of Liberia in western Africa. Ross's heirs contested the will for more than a decade, prompting a deadly revolt in which a group of slaves burned Ross's mansion to the ground. But the will was ultimately upheld. The slaves then emigrated to their new home, where they battled the local tribes and built vast plantations with Greek Revival-style mansions in a region the Americo-Africans renamed “Mississippi in Africa.”In the late twentieth century, the seeds of resentment sown over a century of cultural conflict between the colonists and tribal people exploded, begetting a civil war that rages in Liberia to this day. Tracking down Prospect Hill's living descendants, deciphering a history ruled by rumor, and delivering the complete chronicle in riveting prose, journalist Alan Huffman has rescued a lost chapter of American history whose aftermath is far from over. Read more

A groundbreaking exploration of 500,000 years of African history, cultures and identity.Historian, archaeologist, and anthropologist Luke Pepera takes us on a personal journey discovering 500,000 years of African history and cultures in order to reclaim and reconnect with this extraordinary heritage. He tackles the question many people of African descent ask - Who are we? Where do we come from? What defines us? And it explores how knowledge of this deeper history might affect current understandings of African identity. Through thematically-linked chapters that explore aspects of African identity from nomadic culture and matriarchal society to beliefs about the afterlife and the tradition of oral storytelling, and interwoven with Luke's own experiences of exploring his Ghanaian family history and his personal questions of identity, this is a comprehensive, relevant and beautifully told new history of Africa, and how it has shaped the world we know today. Read more

Nigeria is one of the most culturally-diverse political entities on the face of the earth. An amalgam of ancient kingdoms, tribes, empires and city-states brought together by trade, wars, colonialism and perhaps destiny, Nigeria is today a 36-state federation under a thriving democracy. Before the arrival of the British in the 19th century, Nigeria had a distinctly different shape. Variously sophisticated kingdoms and city-states flourished in the different regions. Around 1000 BC, early civilizations like the Noks—made popular by their magnificent terracotta art—inhabited parts of the north. Hausa city-states, Yoruba and Igbo kingdoms in the south, along with numerous sovereign communities formed by smaller ethnic groups, all sprung up in the early centuries AD and flourished considerably in their respective spheres of influence. Agriculture, and trade in a wide assortment of goods ranging from craft to slaves, sustained these early communities which had well-defined leadership structures; most often revolving around royalty or religious authority. Of the many factors that contributed to the dissimilarity between ancient Nigeria and the country as it exists today, international trade is perhaps the most culpable. While the northern states traded with North Africans and Arabs through the Sahara Desert, the Atlantic Ocean brought European merchants to the southern kingdoms. But trade, which brought wealth and exposure to these kingdoms for centuries, eventually paved the way for colonialism, and before the end of the 19th century, many of the formerly independent states had willingly—or having failed to defend their territories—signed ‘protection’ treaties with Great Britain. Some four decades after Lagos was declared a British colony in 1861, the Oil Rivers (parts of present-day Niger Delta region), the entire south, and finally the entire north, all fell under British control. The 1914 amalgamation of British-controlled northern and southern Nigerian territories opened a new chapter in Nigerian history; as Nigeria was administered as a single political entity for the first time in her history. Under British rule, ethnic, religious and regional differences, though evident, were largely ignored as the nation’s founding fathers united in calling for Nigeria’s liberation from British control. Independence came in 1960, but, shortly after, regional and ethnic rivalries resurfaced and took the young nation to the brink of disintegration. A civil war and a series of military dictatorship regimes followed; keeping the nation at development levels considered way below her potentials for years and decades. Reprieve came in 1999 with the return to democratic governance, but tackling the many troubles brought on the nation by years of instability and mismanagement of the economy has been a slow and painstaking process. Occasional clashes between rival ethnic or religious groups serve as reminders to both government and the governed, of the fragile nature of the Nigerian union. But having survived 100 years as a single political entity since the 1914 amalgamation, Nigerians have sufficient reasons to look forward to a united and prosperous future.+234Express® is proud and honoured to take you on this cursory tour through the history of Africa’s most populous nation, and we are certain that at the end of it you will realise just how little you knew about Africa’s emerging giant - Nigeria. Read more