Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, Cundill History Prize,
Fage and Oliver Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the
Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award Winner of the Historical Writers'
Association Non-Fiction Crown 2020 Winner of the American
Historical Association's Jerry Bentley Prize in World History 2020
Winner of the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural
Understanding 2019 An Observer and Wall Street Journal Book of the
Year 2019 A groundbreaking history that will transform our view of
West Africa By the time of the 'Scramble for Africa' in the late
nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for
many centuries. Its gold had fuelled the economies of Europe and
Islamic world since around 1000, and its sophisticated kingdoms had
traded with Europeans along the coasts from Senegal down to Angola
since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650, this was a trade
of equals, using a variety of currencies - most importantly shells:
the cowrie shells imported from the Maldives, and the nzimbu shells
imported from Brazil. Toby Green's groundbreaking new book
transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa. It
reconstructs the world of kingdoms whose existence (like those of
Europe) revolved around warfare, taxation, trade, diplomacy,
complex religious beliefs, royal display and extravagance, and the
production of art. Over time, the relationship between Africa and
Europe revolved ever more around the trade in slaves, damaging
Africa's relative political and economic power as the terms of
monetary exchange shifted drastically in Europe's favour. In spite
of these growing capital imbalances, longstanding contacts ensured
remarkable connections between the Age of Revolution in Europe and
America and the birth of a revolutionary nineteenth century in
Africa. A Fistful of Shells draws not just on written histories,
but on archival research in nine countries, on art, praise-singers,
oral history, archaeology, letters, and the author's personal
experience to create a new perspective on the history of one of the
world's most important regions. 'Astonishing, staggering' Ben Okri,
Daily Telegraph
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