No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky stands as a key text in the history of the eleven-year struggle against Portuguese rule in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Though perhaps less well known than the struggles in Angola and Mozambique, the liberation war waged by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) easily ranks alongside those conflicts as an example of an African independence movement triumphing against overwhelming odds. Basil Davidson, a leading authority on Portuguese Africa who witnessed many of these events first hand, draws on his own extensive experience in the country as well as the PAIGC archives to provide a detailed and rigorous analysis of the conflict. The book also provides one of the earliest accounts of the assassination of the PAIGC's founder, Amilcar Cabral, and documents the movement's remarkable success in recovering from the death of its leader and in eventually attaining independence. Featuring a preface by Cape Verde's first president, Aristides Pereira, and a foreword by Cabral himself, No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky remains an invaluable resource for the study both of the region and of African liberation struggles as a whole.

Basil Davidson's famous book -- now updated in a welcome Third Edition -- reviews the social and political history of Africa in the twentieth century. It takes the reader from the colonial era through the liberation movements to independence and beyond. It faces squarely the disappointments and breakdowns that have dulled the early successes of the post-colonial era; yet, for all the sorrows and uncertainties of Africa today, Basil Davidson shows how much has been achieved since decolonization, and the mood of his new final chapter is hopeful and buoyant.

This book provides a balanced view about a charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah during an exciting period of history in Ghana. It discusses the failure of Nkrumah's means and abilities to meet the challenge of his aims from the standpoint of Ghana's welfare.

Basil Davidson's Black Star remains one of the most thoughtful and insightful views into the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972)'.- Emmanuel Akyeampong, from the book's new Foreword Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah seized opportunities to lead the countries of sub-Saharan Africa away from colonialism. In 1957, he became the first Prime Minister of Ghana. By the time he was overthrown in a coup in 1966 most African countries, outside the settler-dominated South, had also achieved independence. ' As a visionary Nkrumah was ahead of his times, with an astute understanding of colonialism that made the twin goals of socialism at home (Ghana) and African unity the abiding principles of his work and life.... Nkrumah's monumental role and place in modern Ghana's history mystifies him as a national hero; Black Star humanizes Nkrumah in important ways, and the reader gains a new understanding of a great man, but still a man.' - From the new Foreword by Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Professor of History, Harvard University

Cabral is among the great figures of our time -- these texts provide the evidence.

This is a survey of pre-colonial West Africa, written by the internationally respected author and journalist, Basil Davidson. He takes as his starting point his successful textA History of West Africa 1000-1800, but he has reworked his new text specially for a wider international readership. In the process he offers a fascinating introduction to the rich societies and cultures of Africa before the coming of the Europeans.

This book provides a balanced view about a charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah during an exciting period of history in Ghana. It discusses the failure of Nkrumah's means and abilities to meet the challenge of his aims from the standpoint of Ghana's welfare.

Basil Davidson is the most effective popularizer of African history and archaeology outside Africa and certainly the best trusted in Africa itself. - Roland Oliver in THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS Basil Davidson on the nation-state in Africa and its huge disappointments, its relationship to the colonial years and the parallels with events in Eastern Europe. North America: Times/Random House

@lt;P@gt;Basil Davidson's famous book -- now updated in a welcome Third Edition -- reviews the social and political history of Africa in the twentieth century. It takes the reader from the colonial era through the liberation movements to independence and beyond. It faces squarely the disappointments and breakdowns that have dulled the early successes of the post-colonial era; yet, for all the sorrows and uncertainties of Africa today, Basil Davidson shows how much has been achieved since decolonization, and the mood of his new final chapter is hopeful and buoyant.@lt;/P@gt;

This is a survey of the development and history of the societies and culture of West Africa until c.1850 when European imperialism put an end, temporarily, to the story. The narrative accounts of a number of the major empires of West Africa are set in their broad context, illuminated by the findings of cultural historians and anthropologists. West Africa was the centre of the slave trade and most of the populations of the African diaspora in the US, the Caribbean and Latin America came ultimately from this region

One of the world's greatest revolutionary leaders, Amílcar Cabral's long and arduous campaign for the liberation of Portuguese-dominated Africa is explored in this vivid compilation of his most influential speeches and writings. 'We, the Africans of the Portuguese colonies, are fighting Portuguese colonialism to defend the rights of our peoples, to defend the true interests of people everywhere.' Unity and Struggle is a compelling account of Amílcar Cabral's fight against imperialism, discrimination and injustice, as well as his progressive advocation for religious toleration and gender equality – all of which combined to make him one of Africa's foremost political leaders. Introduction by Basil Davidson. 'One of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa' Fidel Castro 'Figures like Amílcar Cabral... helped us to imagine the horizons of freedom in far broader terms than were available to us through what we now call "civil rights discourse".' Angela Davis

Examines the slave trade in three areas of Africa: the old Congo kingdoms, the city states of the East Coast, and parts of the Guinea coast. Basil Davidson states that by examining three important areas of Africa in the history of slavery 'against a general background of their time and circumstance' he was taking 'a fresh look at the oversea slave trade, the steady year-by-year export of African labour to the West Indies and the Americas that marked the greatest and most fateful migration - forced migration - in the history of man.' North America: Times/Random House

The African Genius presents the ideas, social systems, religions, moral values, arts, and metaphysics of a range of African peoples. Basil Davidson points toward the Africa that might emerge from an ancient civilization that was overlaid and battered by colonialism, then torn apart by the upheaval of colonialism's dismantlement. Davidson disputes the notion that Africa gained under colonialism by entering the modern world. He sees, instead, an ancient order replaced by modern dysfunction. Davidson's depiction of the sophisticated "native genius" that has carried Africans through centuries of change is vital to an understanding of modern Africa as well.

Prior to the original publication of Africa in History, the history and development of Africa had been measured by the European concept of "civilization," applying a Eurocentric approach to African art and literature. Basil Davidson's landmark work presents the inner growth of Africa and its worldwide significance, the internal dynamic of its old civilizations and their links with Asia, Europe and America, as well as the development of specific areas, tribes and cultures. From accounts of the days of the green Sahara and the great iron age, the earliest Portuguese colonization, the coming of slavery and the subsequent legacy of violence and mistrust, the growth of Islam in the north and the cults of the Congo, the sophistication of art and architecture, and the pattern behind social and tribal mores, the entire picture of the continent emerges. This revised edition reflects the recent astonishing changes in South Africa, including the release of Nelson Mandela.

In this lively and instructive memoir of his experience with the anti-Nazi underground in Italy and Yugoslavia during World War II, Basil Davidson throws needed light on a much-neglected part of European history. Sent to the area as a representative of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), he is able to recount at first hand the intense determination of the revolutionary partisans, who hoped that their sacrifices would lead to a new society, and the equally determined policy of the Allies to suppress them.

Combining archeological evidence and scholarly research, Davidson traces the exciting development of the rich kingdoms of the lost cities of Africa, fifteen hundred years before European ships first came to African shores.

No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky stands as a key text in the history of the eleven-year struggle against Portuguese rule in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Though perhaps less well known than the struggles in Angola and Mozambique, the liberation war waged by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) easily ranks alongside those conflicts as an example of an African independence movement triumphing against overwhelming odds. Basil Davidson, a leading authority on Portuguese Africa who witnessed many of these events first hand, draws on his own extensive experience in the country as well as the PAIGC archives to provide a detailed and rigorous analysis of the conflict. The book also provides one of the earliest accounts of the assassination of the PAIGC's founder, Amilcar Cabral, and documents the movement's remarkable success in recovering from the death of its leader and in eventually attaining independence. Featuring a preface by Cape Verde's first president, Aristides Pereira, and a foreword by Cabral himself, No Fist is Big Enough to Hide the Sky remains an invaluable resource for the study both of the region and of African liberation struggles as a whole.