African Kingdoms [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION When the peoples of Europe overflowed into the rest of the world between the 16th and 19th Centuries, the indigenous populations of most colonized lands went under. Indians in America and aborigines in Australia had not sufficiently tamed and filled their continents to prevent newcomers from settling among them and multiplying at a rate much faster than their own. Within two or three centuries the original populations of these two continents were reduced to insignificant minorities. Faced with the same challenge, the Africans survived. Only in the southern tip of their continent, where an uncultivated corner had been left in the hands of hunters and food-gatherers, did European migrants succeed in establishing a self-propagating community. Elsewhere Africans were too numerous and too much the masters of their environment to be overtaken. Subject to alien rule for a brief period during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, they were nowhere outnumbered, nor was their culture destroyed. Surely this must mean that Africans are worth studying; surely their achievement is not without interest to their fellow men. If the history of Africa seems a jungle, it is more likely a jungle of ignorance. Through it, paths are even now being cut, and one of the foremost pathfinders is Basil Davidson. As a writer rather than a professional scholar, Davidson has escaped what is both the virtue and the temptation of the latter—the desire to mark out a single square mile of virgin forest for his very own and cut it down tree by tree. On the contrary, Davidson has made it his business to look in on other men's clearings and report their discoveries with fairness and generosity. His learning is large and liberal. Few have read so widely into the written sources of African history. Few have so thoroughly mastered the findings of archeology and anthropology, and presented them in a way that commands the respect of the experts. In this volume he attempts a bold synthesis: to draw the fruits of anthropological research into the field of historical vision, and thus explore not only the large centralized states that once existed in Africa, but also the past of its simple village societies. The history of these societies can only be presented by taking examples from the present and weaving into them impressions and reflections gained from the wider story. It is perilous work, but to sidestep it is to ignore one whole facet of African life and achievement. Some readers may feel that in evaluating the African past Davidson tends to be romantic and eulogistic. They may be assured that this is a matter of interpretation, not invention; Davidson commands his sources. If he assesses them too admiringly for some tastes, he also rights an old imbalance. Certainly he is one of the very few outsiders whose writings enjoy the real confidence of Africans and serious students of Africa. ROLAND OLIVER Professor of African History University of London