Abner Cohen was formerly Professor of Anthropology at the University of London, and carried out intensive fieldwork in Africa and the Near East. Custom and Politics in Urban Africa earned him the prestigious Amaury Talbot Prize in 1969.

• Introduction; Chapter 1 The Migratory Process; Chapter 2 The Migratory Process; Chapter 3 Landlords of the Trade; Chapter 4 The Politics of Long-Distance Trade (1906–1950); Chapter 5 From a Tribal Polity to a Religious Brotherhood (1951–63); Chapter 6 Chapter Six: The Ritualization of Political Authority; Conclusions: Political Ethnicity in Contemporary African Towns;