Africa is known as a continent of conflict. Entire regions have been caught up in violent conflicts that have sometimes resulted in state collapse. Yet during its nearly four decades of independence, West Africa has known comparatively little violent conflict and has had diverse experiences in managing the conflicts of demand-bearing groups.

As this book demonstrates, governance is conflict management. Governments are needed to handle the conflicting demands posed by groups in society and to reduce the conflicts that arise among the groups themselves. Unmanaged, these conflicts can escalate into violence; but managed, they give governments choice and direction, as well as energies to carry out essential programs.

The authors examine the efforts of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria to manage their conflicts and evaluate the prospects of the three nations for effective regimes for managing conflicts in the future. By suggesting explanations for their past successes and failures, this study of West Africa contributes to an understanding of governance and conflict management. The lessons are far-reaching and applicable well beyond the African continent.

In addition to the editor, the contributors are Tessy D. Bakary, Laval University, Quebec; A. Adu Boahen, University of Ghana at Legon; Alex Gboyega, University of Ibadan, Nigeria; and Donald Rothchild, professor of political science at the University of California, Davis.

SPECIAL COMMENDATION in Africa's 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century. The series is illustrated throughout with maps and black and white photographs. Volume 7 examines the period of partition, conquest and occupation from the beginnings of the 'European Scramble for Africa' to the Italian fascist invasion of Ethiopia in 1935. Throughout the volume the focus is on the responsesof Africans themselves to the challenge of colonialism. A general overview is followed by more detailed regional analyses. Chapters 13 to 21 concern the impact of economic and social aspects of colonial systems in Africa from1919 to 1935; the operation of colonial economies; the emergence of new social structures and demographic patterns; and the role of religion and the arts in Africa during the colonial period. The final section traces the growth of anti-colonial movements, the strengthening of African political nationalism and the interaction between black Africa and blacks of the New World. Liberia and Ethiopia are discussed in special chapters. The seriesis co-published in Africa with seven publishers, in the United States and Canada by the University of California Press, and in association with the UNESCO Press.

Counteracts the misconception of Africa having no history before colonisation. Eminent historian A. Adu Boahen gives an African perspective on colonialism. A. ADU BOAHEN was Professor Emeritus of History, University of Ghana (Legon), fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts & Sciences NorthAmerica: The Johns Hopkins University Press

This history deals with the twenty-year period between 1880 and 1900, when virtually all of Africa was seized and occupied by the Imperial Powers of Europe. Eurocentric points of view have dominated the study of this era, but in this book, one of Africa's leading historians reinterprets the colonial experiences from the perspective of the colonized.

In this book, one of the pioneers of twentieth century African history examines the perceptions and responses of Africans to European colonialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. This edition of Boahen's text, originally published in 1989, is contextualized in a new foreword by John Lonsdale, updating some of Boahen's findings and interpretations while maintaining that the "best, totally unambiguous, legacy of this republication would surely be the inspiration of a new generation of African scholars, locally based, as clear-minded and outspoken as Adu Boahen himself."

The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself is a key text for understanding the history of the great West African kingdom of Asante (now in Ghana). It is also an early--and perhaps the earliest--example of history writing in English by an African ruler and his amanuenses. It was begun in 1907 in the Seychelles on the instructions of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I, who had been in British captivity with his family since 1896, during which time he had acquired proficiency in English.
The chief source of information was his mother the Asantehemaa Yaa Kyaa, who possessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of the oral history of her own lineage, which was also the royal dynasty of Asante. The result is an indispensably detailed document that charts the history of the Asante monarchy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Context is provided by the inclusion of other writings by or about Agyeman Prempeh, together with four introductory essays by the world's leading scholars of Asante history.
This fascinating volume evokes the rich historical experience of a renowned kingdom, and is of compelling interest to all concerned with the production of indigenous historical knowledge in Africa.