A mixed bag of 20 essays and lectures (most reprinted from The New
Statesman and other journals) by Africa-expert Davidson (The Black
Man's Burden, 1992, etc.), selected by the author in commemoration
of his 80th birthday. The best essays here were chosen by Davidson
because, he says, they offer "a line of thought that can illuminate
one of the truly liberating achievements, cultural achievements, of
the twentieth century: the reinstallation of Africa's peoples
within the cultures of the world." In "The Search for Africa's
Past," for instance, the author discusses not only the seminal role
that the West African gold trade played in creating the prosperity
of "late-medieval Europe," but also the many kingdoms that existed
throughout Africa in precolonial times - kingdoms that Davidson
thinks would have evolved into strong nation-states if the
Europeans had allowed them to do so. Elsewhere, in "Africa and the
Invention of Racism," Davidson points out how, in the late 17th
century, attitudes toward Africa changed for the worse: Before
then, he explains, Europeans "believed that they had found forms of
civilization which were often comparable with their own, however
variously dressed or mannered." But other essays included here -
especially those on South Africa, Angola, and the African peasantry
- seem not only dated but often wrong. In particular, "Southern
Africa: Progress or Disaster?," written shortly before Nelson
Mandela was released, suggests outcomes for South Africa far
removed from what actually took place. Moreover, the laying of
blame by Davidson (a committed socialist) on capitalism for all of
Africa's ills is less than persuasive, especially in "Nationalism
and Africa's Self-Transformation," which faults the African
nationalists who "hoped to build independent capitalist systems
based on deepening class stratification and bourgeois hegemony," as
well as the colonialists who, he says, wished to establish a
"subcapitalist dependency." Davidson has his biases, and they show
- but so, too, do his great affection and goodwill for a continent
too often maligned or ignored. (Kirkus Reviews)
The collection gathers together the questions and answers that have
come out of the author's lifelong fascination with Africa. These
essays and articles, written between 1953 and 1993, explore the
development of an African historiography and, in that context, the
author's own development. People who have been involved all their
lives with Africa willbe reminded of how many times Basil Davidson
has given them new insights. People who approach the study of
Africa for the first time will find this collection opens out their
perceptions. North America: Times/Random House
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