Review: The Penguin Atlas of African History

The Penguin Atlas of African History The Penguin Atlas of African History by Colin McEvedy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Almost every other page on this book contains an annotated map that illustrates what the text describes. The book starts out well, going back to the times of the Pangaea, describes the break up, the distribution of mammal species, the evolution of the various homos, and the migration of homo sapiens sapiens out of Africa. From that point on, the book starts focusing mainly on Northern Africa and the Mediterranean. As the story progresses it becomes clear that this is "African History" mostly from the perspective of Europeans, with a few Arabs and Turks in the mix. Kingdoms and empires in the Southern African regions receive scant mention. The author becomes the most talkative around the "Age of Discovery", and describes with fascination with the exploits of the Portuguese, mentioning the indigenous African kingdoms briefly and only relative to their relevance to the explorers. This trend continues for the rest of the book.

As an example, in page 88 (AD 1800) there is a page devoted manly to the expedition of Napoleon to Egypt. Only in the last paragraph we read: "Note also the appearance of the first major Bantu kingdom in East Africa, the kingdom of Buganda on the north-west of Lake Victoria". This is the first and last time we will hear of this major kingdom.

After reading this book I am not much wiser regarding proper African history and if this were my only criterion I would not have awarded this book 3 stars. Nevertheless, I like history in general and this was a good overview of historical events in the wider Mediterranean region.



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