Molefi Kete Asante is Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Temple University. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies and has published 76 books including The African American People: A Global History (Routledge) and As I Run Toward Africa. He is President, Molefi Kete Asante Institute, Philadelphia; Board of Directors, Institute for Pan African Strategies, Dakar; and Advisor, Thabo Mbeki Institute for African Leadership, Tshwane.

• PrefaceNote on the Second EditionIntroductionPART ONE: THE TIME OF THE AWAKENINGChapter 1 Africa and the Origin of HumanityPART TWO: THE AGE OF LITERACYChapter 2 Africa and the Beginning of CivilizationChapter 3: The Rise of Kemet/ EgyptChapter 4: The Elements of Early African CivilizationChapter 5: Governance and the Political Stability of KemetPART THREE: THE MOMENT OF REALIZATIONChapter 6: The Emergence of the Great River KingdomsPART FOUR: THE AGE OF CONSTRUCTIONChapter 7: The Spread of Classical Empires and KingdomsChapter 8: The Sudanic Empires: Historians and Their NarrativesChapter 9: Generators of Traditional and Contemporary AfricaChapter 10: Societies of Secrets: Farmers and MetallurgistsPART FIVE: THE TIME OF THE CHAOSChapter 11: Arab and European Missionaries, Merchants and MercenariesChapter 12: Resisting European and Arab Slave TradersPART SIX: THE AGE OF RECONSTRUCTIONChapter 13: Africa Regains Consciousness in a Pan African ExplosionPART SEVEN: THE TIME FOR CONSOLIDATIONChapter 14: Africa Consolidates IndependenceChapter 15: Toward a United States of Africa without CompromiseAppendices1: Chronology of African History2: African Union Resolution on South Sudan3: Some African Ethnic Groups4: Major Linguistic ComplexesBibliographyIndex

"Molefi Kete Asante is an important scholar-activist whose intellectual contributions to the forward progression of African peoples cannot be overstated. This updated edition honors Asante’s `Elder Djelis’ with its new research, sources, and interpretation on a myriad of issues and events including the deaths of Madiba and Achebe, conflicts in Senegal, Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo, terrorism in Nigeria, the `Arab Spring,’ and much more."—Will Guzmán, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University