This historical account of the transatlantic slave trade between Africa and the United States is filled with a wealth of records, details and analyses of its attempted suppression. The various moral, economic and religious arguments against slavery were clear from the outset of the practice in the early 16th century. The ownership of a human life as an economic commodity was decried from religious circles from the earliest days as an immoral affront to basic human dignity. However the practice of gaining lifelong labor in exchange only for a basic degree of care meant slavery persisted for centuries across the New World as a lucrative endeavor. The colonial United States would, from the early 17th century, receive many thousands of slaves from Africa. Many of the slaves transported were sent to work on plantations and farms which steadily spread across the warmer southern states of the nation. Others would do manual work on the docks, for instance moving goods in the fledgling trading colonies.

The slow collapse of the European colonial empires after 1945 provides one of the great turning points of twentieth century history. With the loss of India however, the British under Harold Macmillan attempted to enforce a 'second' colonial occupation - supporting the efforts of Sir Andrew Cohen of the Colonial Office to create a Central African Federation. Drawing on newly released archival material, The Politics and Economics of Decolonization in Africa offers a fresh examination of Britain's central African territories in the late colonial period and provides a detailed assessment of how events in Britain, Africa and the UN shaped the process of decolonization. The author situates the Central African Federation - which consisted of modern day Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi - in its wider international context, shedding light on the Federation's complex relationships with South Africa, with US Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy and with the expanding United Nations. The result is an important history of the last days of the British Empire and the beginnings of a more independent African continent.

Muslims beyond the Arab World explores the tradition of writing African languages using the Arabic script 'Ajami and the rise of the Muridiyya order of Islamic Sufi in Senegal, founded by Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba Mbakke (1853-1927). The book demonstrates how the development of the 'Ajami literary tradition and the flourishing of the Muridiyya into one of sub-Saharan Africa's most powerful and dynamic Sufi organizations are entwined. It offers a close reading of the rich hagiographic and didactic written, recited, and chanted 'Ajami texts of the Muridiyya, works largely unknown to scholars. The texts describe the life and Sufi odyssey of the order's founder, his conflicts with local rulers and Muslim clerics and the French colonial administration, and the traditions and teachings he championed that shaped the identity and practices of his followers. In analyzing these Murid 'Ajami texts, Fallou Ngom evaluates prevailing representations of the movement and offers alternative perspectives. He demonstrates how, without the knowledge of the French colonial administration, the Murids were able to use their written, recited, and chanted 'Ajami materials as an effective means of mass communication to convey the personal journey of Shaykh Ahamadu Bamba, his doctrine, the virtues he stood for and cultivated among his followers: self-reliance, strong faith, the pursuit of excellence, nonviolence, and optimism in the face of adversity. This, according to Muslims beyond the Arab World, is the source of the surprising resilience, appeal, and expansion of Muridiyya.