The kings of ancient Egypt's first five dynasties were responsible for the creation of a unique and enduring civilisation, epitomised by its most impressive monuments, the pyramids. Yet what do we know about the reigns of these kings? Excavations have revealed much; but Egyptology has always been blessed with another rich source of information, the written texts and inscriptions composed by the ancient Egyptians themselves.

For the history of the first five dynasties, one particular series of inscriptions has always been of prime importance. This is the collection of inscribed, stone fragments known as the royal annals. Now divided between museums in Palermo, Cairo and London, these documents from ancient Egypt have been the focus of countless studies in the century or so since they first came to light. For they seem to record the reigns of Egypt's early kings on a reign-by-reign, year-by-year basis. The information they contain has been translated, interpreted and re-interpreted by generations of Egyptologists, in the hope of achieving a better understanding of the first great period of ancient Egyptian history. And yet amazingly for such crucial documents, no complete edition of all seven surviving fragments has ever been published. Royal Annals fills this gap. The text is accompanied by specially-commissioned, detailed line-drawings of all the fragments.

The first new translation in over 400 years of one of the great works of the Renaissance: an African diplomat's guide to Africa. In 1518, al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan, a Moroccan diplomat, was seized by pirates while travelling in the Mediterranean. Brought before Pope Leo X, he was persuaded to convert to Christianity, in the process taking the name Johannes Leo Africanus. Acclaimed in the papal court for his learning, Leo would in time write his masterpiece, The Cosmography and the Geography of Africa. The Cosmography was the first book about Africa, and the first book written by a modern African, to reach print. It would remain central to the European understanding of Africa for over 300 years, with its descriptions of lands, cities and peoples giving a singular vision of the vast continent: its urban bustle and rural desolation, its culture, commerce and warfare, its magical herbs and strange animals. Yet it is not a mere catalogue of the exotic: Leo also invited his readers to acknowledge the similarity and relevance of these lands to the time and place they knew. For this reason, The Cosmography and Geography of Africa remains significant to our understanding not only of Africa, but of the world and how we perceive it.

Stassen wy o.a. ’n volle hoofstuk aan die aangrypende verhaal van die Dorslandtrekkers en hulle lotgevalle. Tydens hierdie Angola-Boere se verblyf in Angola was daar van boerdery min sprake en probleme was velerlei: ’n problematiese verhouding met die Portugese owerheid, terwyl gebrekkige ekonomiese en opvoedkundige geleenthede, en gevolglike armoede, soms tot ontstellende verval gelei het.

In 1928 is ongeveer 2000 Angola-Boere na Suidwes-Afrika gerepatrieer. Die gemeenskap van 386–471 Afrikaners wat ná 1928 in Angola agtergebly het, is aan die vergetelheid en verwaarlosing oorgelaat en is later as ’n “lewende fossiel” en slagoffers van hulle eie behoudendheid bestempel. Sommige het wel nog ’n lewe uit gemengde boerdery, transportry en jag probeer maak, dekades nadat hierdie lewenswyse elders uitgesterf het. Vanaf 1958 tot 1963 is die meerderheid van die ongeveer 600 Afrikaners in Angola na Suidwes-Afrika en Suid-Afrika gerepatrieer, terwyl slegs enkeles in Angola agtergebly het. Hierdie groepie Afrikaners het hul Afrikanerskap daar onder moeilike omstandighede gehandhaaf.

Met die uitbreek van die burgeroorlog in 1975 in Angola het die laaste Afrikaners uit Angola gevlug en het die verbintenis van die Angola-Boere met Angola ná byna ’n eeu tot ’n einde gekom. Hulle interessante en kleurryke lewe word beskryf en die sogenaamde “trekgees” as ’n moontlike rede vir hulle swerftogte word onder die loep geneem.

On 2 September 1898 Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army defeated the massed armies of dervishes at the battle of Omdurman. To commemorate the centenary of these events, eleven historians have collaborated to produce a fresh reappraisal of the reconquest and its international repercussions. They examine some of the policies, personalities and issues involved from different perspectives.
British political and military policies are reviewed, with studies of the aims and motives of Lord Salisbury, the political problems of Kitchener's command, and the experience of campaigning in the Sudan. There are analyses of the images sent back from the Sudan, the difficulties of reporting the campaign, and the role of unofficial correspondents, with a facsimile reproduction of a dispatch from Winston Churchill.
The contributors examine the colonial difficulties that triggered the campaign, the machinations of the Kaiser in trying to bring about a war between Britain and France, the evolution of French attitudes and the resolution of the Fashoda crisis, the well-informed and incisive monitoring of events by Austria-Hungary, and the widespread European view that Omdurman constituted a triumph for 'civilisation'. Finally, the significance of the reconquest is reviewed for its impact upon Sudanese history, particularly for the deeply rooted and enduring legacy of Mahdism.

15 April 2016 marked 20 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings began. The TRC was set up to give an opportunity for perpetrators of human rights transgressions to come clean about the atrocities that happened during those evil days of apartheid. Sadly, only half of the truth came to the fore. Many families still do not know what happened to their loved ones.

There are few people better placed than Mary Burton to write about the TRC, having been one of its Commissioners. Burton’s pocket book provides an informed account from the inside of the process and workings of the TRC and a measured and balanced assessment of its outcomes and significance.

Even at the time of its existence, the TRC came in for criticism from a variety of quarters: both the African National Congress and ex-President FW de Klerk took legal action to challenge or prevent the publication of the Commission’s report; however, the Commission also fulfilled a vital and important role in the transition from apartheid to democracy, and it has become a model for other countries wishing to undertake similar journeys to deal with past atrocities and come to some kind of national resolution, reconciliation or closure.

Early Dynastic Egypt is the most comprehensive treatment of Early Dynastic administration and religion. A wealth of complex information is explained in a clear style accessible to the general reader, whilst students will welcome the book's thematic approach to early Egyptian civilization.
Written in a scholarly style and arranged in three parts this is the result of over thirty years of international scholarship. It includes recent dramatic discoveries and is presented in a single volume.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203024389

Just before Christmas 1989, a small group of armed fighters crossed a narrow river marking the frontier with Sierra Leone, and entered the West African state of Liberia. The civil war which followed plunged the African continent's oldest republic into a long and agonising nightmare, during which the country was torn apart and its people brutalised by terror, violence and bloodshed. The war promised to liberate Liberians after almost ten years of vicious dictatorship under President Samuel Doe; instead, as the first shots were fired, the seeds of Liberia's devastation were sown.
Mark Huband's account of the conflict, which begins a few days after the original incursion, is a moving and dramatic portrayal of the war as it unfolded. His extensive research and access to key figures in the conflict, together with a wealth of poignant and disturbing eye-witness detail, provide a fascinating portrait of Doe, his US-backed rule, and the enemies he made. Vivid and often harrowing, the book draws upon the author's experience of living among the fighters, the leaders and the terrorised population as they witnessed the growing horror of the conflict in which they had become trapped.

The core of the book is Oliver's account of his research travels throughout tropical Africa from the 1940s to the 1980s; his efforts to train and foster African graduate students to teach in African universities; his role in establishing conferences and journals to bring together the work of historians and archaeologists from Europe and Africa; his encounters with political and religious leaders, scholars, soldiers, and storytellers; and the political and economic upheavals of the continent that he witnessed.

In the story of the The Golden Republic, Bulpin sets a stage on which we meet some of the strangest characters that fate had ever attached to the puppet strings of destiny. The grim Mzilikazi; the hot-headed Hendrik Potgieter and his trekkers; prospectors like Charlie the Reefer; gaudy rogues like Gunn of Gunn and his Highlanders; bandits, highwaymen, rand lords, gold rushers, to name just a few. He tells of leaders like Pretorius and Kruger, and many others who each played a part in establishing the Republic of the Transvaal – a seemingly impossible task considering all the small wars and skirmishes on the veld and the rumble of arguments rising out of each farmhouse. In his remarkably engaging style of writing he sketches scenes of rough but beautiful land, which must have been fascinating to explorers who roamed about the old Transvaal with all its scenic novelties where every turn yielded some marvel for the geologist, the botanist, or the zoologist. The Golden Republic tells of the adventure that raised the Republic to its peak and the complex intrigues that brought it down to the dust; of misfortune and riches, and despair of such magnitude that the birth of a Republic seemed inevitable considering the economic disaster it at times experienced … Until gold poked out its shiny head and gave hope again. The characters who crowded into diggers’ towns were some of the wildest and most colourful ever known in the Transvaal. From all over South Africa they flocked to the scene, in the hope of finding fortune. Most of them were just opportunists, who knew nothing about gold except how to spend it. This is a brilliant book of the birth, life and death of the old Republic written in the tell-tale style Bulpin does so well.

Just before Christmas 1989, a small group of armed fighters crossed a narrow river marking the frontier with Sierra Leone, and entered the West African state of Liberia. The civil war which followed plunged the African continent's oldest republic into a long and agonising nightmare, during which the country was torn apart and its people brutalised by terror, violence and bloodshed. The war promised to liberate Liberians after almost ten years of vicious dictatorship under President Samuel Doe; instead, as the first shots were fired, the seeds of Liberia's devastation were sown.
Mark Huband's account of the conflict, which begins a few days after the original incursion, is a moving and dramatic portrayal of the war as it unfolded. His extensive research and access to key figures in the conflict, together with a wealth of poignant and disturbing eye-witness detail, provide a fascinating portrait of Doe, his US-backed rule, and the enemies he made. Vivid and often harrowing, the book draws upon the author's experience of living among the fighters, the leaders and the terrorised population as they witnessed the growing horror of the conflict in which they had become trapped.

Sankara's legacy, unclear as it may be, still lives and he remains immensely popular. If you travel through Africa his image is unmistakable. His picture, with beret and broad grin, is pasted on run-down taxis and is found on the walls of local bars. Internationally Sankara is often referred to as the `African Che Guevara' and like his South American counterpart; it is his perseverance, dedication and incorruptibility that appeal to the imagination. Voices of liberation: Thomas Sankara starts with a comprehensive timeline covering Thomas Sankara's life and major events in the history of the continent and region. His Life section provides the most critical and fraternal assessment of the 1980s radical experiment within the broader history of the country, the region and continent. His Voice section succinctly provides a selection of Sankara's speeches, broadcasts and interviews and gives us insight to his outlook on the world. His Legacy section combines an almost poetic tribute to the flawed through heroic period of Sankara's `revolution' with an incredibly relentless and honest analysis. This is done through the story of last year's uprising against Compaore - with haunting lessons for South Africa. The Postscript is an indispensable update to the extraordinary events in Burkina Faso during 2015, chiefly the resistance to the coup in September. The authors look at Sankara's influence on the popular movements and its wider significance for Africa.

Nicol Stassen is die voorste kenner op die Dorslandtrekkers en hul merkwaardige swerftogte aan die binneland van Suider-Afrika. In Van Humpata tot Upingtonia vertel hy op boeiende wyse hoe dit gebeur het dat ’n aantal trekkers in 1885 die republiek Upingtonia in die noorde van Damaraland gestig het.

Die Kaapse bruin man William Worthington Jordan, een van die merkwaardigste persone wat gedurende hierdie jare in Suider-Afrika geleef het, het ’n belangrike rol gespeel in die stigting hiervan. Sy tragiese dood en die ondergang van die vergete republiek Upingtonia word van naderby belig.

Composite Warfare presents African soldiers and scholars with a true African `Art of War'. This book is intended as a guide and textbook for African soldiers and scholars who wish to understand the development of hostilities, strategy, operational design, doctrine and tactics. It also illustrates the importance of non-partisanship and the mission and role of the armed forces. It covers the role of government along with operations related to war, operations other than war and intelligence operations and how these operations, operating in a coordinated and unified manner, can secure and strengthen a government. Composite Warfare draws on the author's experiences and lessons in Central, Southern, East, West and North Africa where he served numerous African governments as a politico-military strategist, division commander, division adviser, battalion commander and special operations commander.

Five years ago, Good Governance Africa undertook to focus its National Security Programme on a core phenomenon that actively seeks to disrupt, undermine and destroy peace, development and security across Africa. This is the problem of extremisms in Africa – an increasing scourge. These movements are religious, ethnic and race-based in nature, and represent complex and supreme threats to stability.

To better prepare ourselves to understand and engage extremist threats in order to prevent, counter and overcome them, GGA has scoured the African continent, producing a collection of close on 50 chapters of knowledge in a trilogy of book volumes (of which this book is the third) covering a plethora of topics across regions and countries, dedicated to markedly diverse themes.

Volume 3 of Extremisms in Africa consists of 17 contributions, and evidences an even greater attention to detail on further developments and potential threats. Topically, given the global COVID-19 pandemic, the book looks at the pressing theme of the weaponisation of viruses; current insurgency developments in northern Mozambique; the impact of extremisms on business; the business that is extremist activity; and the crime–extremism nexus and terror financing in Africa’s Horn. On the tech and cyber front, the book examines the rise of artificial intelligence and social media. To the north, it examines why Libya remains problematic, to the west, we examine why kidnapping is rife there, and to the south, Volume 3 reviews lessons learned for southern Africa, amongst other topics.

Controversy still surrounds the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt in 1956 and the role of senior British politicians such as the Prime Minister, Anthony Eden. This volume traces the history of Anglo-Egyptian relations since the opening of the canal, and Britain's wider interests in the region. The crisis itself, from its development to the invasion and the aftermath, is fully explored. The wider implications of the episode, both for Britain and on a global scale, are considered in detail. A wide range of documentary evidence is carefully woven into textual analysis. Included are: key UK and US government sources; photographs, cartoons; diary entries; interviews, and extracts from newspapers. The significance of individual sources - and their usefulness for historians - is highlighted.

"Inside Quatro uncovers some of the exile history of the ANC and SWAPO that both organisations would prefer not to remember. Here is a first-hand account of the ANC's Quatro prison camp and of the mutiny in Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) in Angola in 1984; articles on the SWAPO 'spy drama' of the 1970s and 1980s; an analysis of a death in exile with implications relating to Jacob Zuma; and a study of the responses of both the ANC and SWAPO to these episodes of intolerance, repression and excess. In all his essays, Trewhela analyses problems of the liberation struggles with a former insider's knowledge and a journalist's ability to ferret out the facts"--Publisher's website.

After more than twenty years of devastating civil war, Angola is slowly moving toward peace and reconciliation. In this accessible introduction to one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa, Inge Tvedten traces Angola's turbulent past with a particular focus on the effects of political and economic upheaval on the Angolan people. First, Tvedten reviews five centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, which drained Angola's resources through slavery and exploitation. Next, he turns to the postindependence period, during which the country became a Cold War staging ground and its attempts to democratize collapsed when the rebel movement UNITA (until then supported by the United States) took the country back to war after electoral defeat. Tvedten shows how the colonial legacy and decades of war turned Angola into one of the ten poorest countries in the world in terms of socioeconomic indicators, despite its possessing considerable oil resources, huge hydroelectric potential, vast and fertile agricultural lands, and some of Africa's most productive fishing waters. Finally, Tvedten argues that peace and prosperity for Angola are possible, but constructive international support will be crucial to its achievement.

This is the story of a life shaped by Egypt's national struggle and dominated by the conflict between the Arab world and Israel. It charts Sadat's progress from fanatical nationalist to Nasser's successor as President of Egypt, and from world statesman to tragic hero, who gave his life in the cause of peace. This study of one of the major figures in the struggle for peace in the Middle East, is of interest in the light of the ongoing peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

A collection of essays on aspects of Egyptian art by leading specialists in memory of Cyril Aldred (1914-1991), who was one of the world's leading authorities on the subject.

Islamic cultures in the Middle East have inherited and developed a legacy of urbanism spanning millennia to the ancient civilizations of the region. In contrast to well-organized states like China in history, Muslim peoples formed loose states based on intricate social networks. As a consequence, most studies of urban history in the Middle East have focused their gaze exclusively on urban social organization, often neglecting the extension of political power to rural areas. Covering Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Brunei, this volume explores the relationship between political power and social networks in medieval and modern Middle Eastern history. The authors examine social, religious and administrative networks that governed rural and urban areas and led to state formation, providing a more inclusive view of the mechanisms of power and control in the Islamic world.

Some years ago Donal McCracken was working on a book of Ireland and the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) when, in the British Ministry of Defence Library, the old War Office Library, off Whitehall, he came upon a slim volume. It was a war diary written by a young German from Halbertstad named Ernest Luther. As a child, Luther went with his mother to New York. From there, in a short period, he fought as a volunteer in three wars: the Graeco-Turkish War, the United States-Spanish War and the Anglo-Boer War. In South Africa Luther joined an Irish commando in the Boer army and fought against the British. Aged around twenty, he was killed in action in September 1900 during the Boer retreat through the Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga) in the face of Lord Roberts's advancing army. So we have a German-American, coming to South Africa to fight against the British, in an Irish commando, in the Boer army. The diary, published in 1900 in English, consists of only 54 small pages, but it is packed with action and invaluable as a source about the Boer retreat as well as about such matters as indiscipline in the commando, drunkenness, use of dum-dum bullets, which Boer leaders were where when, and so forth. But there is also a fascinating postscript. British Military Intelligence took the diary off the dying Luther. Within ten weeks, it had been shipped to London, possibly translated (the original is lost so we do not know if it was written in German), possibly altered and ultimately published by British Military Intelligence at 16 Queen Anne's Gate. We also know that in at least one instance and probably others, the published diary was handed out to a journalist in the field with General Roberts. So the diary also opens a window into the actions of British Military Intelligence and the embedded journalist within the advancing British army.

Reviewing the data from other New Kingdom settlements on a micro-spatial level, this study reveals a highly diversified and unique pattern of habitation in the Nile Valley. The main focus of this work is the New Kingdom which offers the largest number of sites from any one period.

During the West's great transition into the post-Colonial age, the country of Rhodesia refused to succumb quietly, and throughout the 1970s fought back almost alone against Communist-supported elements that it did not believe would deliver proper governance. During this long war many heroes emerged, but none more skillful and courageous than Captain Darrell Watt of the Rhodesian SAS, who placed himself at the tip of the spear in the deadly battle to resist the forces of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. It is difficult to find another soldier's story to equal Watt's in terms of time spent on the field of battle and challenges faced. Even by the lofty standards of the SAS and Special Forces, one has to look far to find anyone who can match his record of resilience and valor in the face of such daunting odds and with resources so paltry. In the fight he showed himself to be a military maestro. A bush-lore genius, blessed with uncanny instincts and an unbridled determination to close with the enemy, he had no peers as a combat-tracker (and there was plenty of competition). But the Rhodesian theatre was a fluid and volatile one in which he performed in almost every imaginable fighting role; as an airborne shock-trooper leading camp attacks, long range reconnaissance operator, covert urban operator, sniper, saboteur, seek-and-strike expert, and in the final stages as a key figure in mobilizing an allied army in neighboring Mozambique. After 12 years in the cauldron of war his cause slipped from beneath him, however, and Rhodesia gave way to Zimbabwe. When the guns went quiet Watt had won all his battles but lost the war. In this fascinating biography we learn that in his twilight years he is now concerned with saving wildlife on a continent where they are in continued danger, devoting himself to both the fauna and African people he has cared so deeply about.

Sexuality in the ancient world has received much scholarly attention in the last few years, but most studies have tended to confine themselves to sources from Greece and Rome. Dominic Montserrat's new work is the first comprehensive study of sex in ancient Egypt.

The book considers sex in its broadest sense, analyzing not only the sexual practices of individuals but also the ways in which sexual activity was indivisibly woven into the fabric of social and communal life. The main sources are the numerous private documents written in Egypt during the Graeco-Roman period, fragments of history miraculously preserved by the dry climate.