West Africa before the Colonial Era

• 1. The Early Centuries of Emergence: An Introduction.  2. Emergence of Trading States and Empires.  3. Pioneers in Ancient Ghana.  4. The Majesty of Mali.  5. Songhay Achievement.  6. Kanem-Bornu and the Hausa States.  7. Early Senegambia.  8. The Forest Kingdoms.  9. On the Threshold of Modern Times.  10. The Arts, Religion and Learning.11. The Organisation of Society.  12. New Pressures.  13. Origins and Growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade.  14. Senegambia After AD 1700.  15. The Union of the Golden Stool.  16. After Great Disasters.  Index.

"This is an unusually compelling and impressive history of the cultures, societies and polities of a major region of the world before the advent of formal colonial rule.""An immensely valuable introduction to the pre-colonial history of West Africa [...] which deserves to be widely earmarked as essential by the drafters of reading lists." English historical review, 1999