The largest and best known of these is the trans-Saharan trade network, which “extended throughout the Sahara Desert, an expanse of 3,320,000 square miles” (Schraeder 2004a:36). “If you traveled across the United States from Boston to San Diego, you still would not have crossed the Sahara,” explain Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle in a captivating history of the region, “and if you started from Paris you’d be at the Urals, deep into Russia, long before you ran out of Sahara”

deter-minist views that Africans were incapable of organizing stable “civiliza-tions” or states without external leadership

Until the 1960s, most historians relied on written sources, so most history tended to be about societies with writing. Since most African societies did not develop writing, the historical record before about 500 BCE was sparse, gleaned from accounts of non-African travelers, usually Muslims, and archaeological remains.

Some scholars identify these different subsistence patterns with the continent’s oldest language families: Afro-Asiatic, Khoisan, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan. The speakers of the oldest of these four, Khoisan, prob-ably were the inhabitants of the southern third of Africa until sometime in the past 2,000 years. These people developed foraging and hunting str

n important geographic feature captured by Map 2.1 is that the ITCZ shifts pronouncedly from June to January. This shift is caused by changing earth-sun relationships during the year and by the inclination of the earth’s axis. This motion is crucial for the delivery of rainfall to Africa and gives

ur sovereign countries that are divided among five major geographical regions—Central, East, North, Southern, and West Africa—that serve as gateways to the Western Hemisphere, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Finally, a note is in order regarding terminology related to different eras of African history

nterdisciplinary Lens

Continental Perspective

Kaleidoscope of Diversity

Introducing Africa Map 1.2 Regions of Contemporary Africa 5 Credit: Peter J. Schraeder Several examples demonstrate the necessity of adopting a continental perspective. From a historical viewpoint, one must focus on both North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa to have a comprehensive understanding of the trans-Saharan trade network (Austen 2010). Second, any comprehen-sive understanding of the rise of African nationalism and the emergence of the contemporary independence era must begin with that region—North Africa—which was part of the first wave of nationalism and independence during the 1950s. Similarly, if one wishes to understand the rise of Islamist and pan-Islamist movements, one must have a firm understanding of the predominantly Muslim countries throughout North, East, Central, and West Africa. In short, a comprehensive understanding of contemporary

However, African Americans since well before the American Revolution have resisted white efforts to define black reality, and therefore they cannot be said to have invented the idea of African primitiveness, even if they believed in portions of it. They were victims in much the same way that Africans have been victims.

Entertainment

One of the biggest difficulties with generalizing about American views of Africa concerns the inclusion of African American views. The problem is complex because American culture is complex. Until at least the 1960s, for example, it was quite common for African Americans to think of Africans as having primitive cultures.

CNN’s 2016 feature, “12 Incredible African Tribal Traditions,” highlights Ethiopian Mursi women who wear large lip plates; the Mekan men of Ethiopia who prepare for their Lunar New Year celebration by spending months getting fat to compete for the fattest man title; the practice of “lobola” or bridewealth that is given by the groom’s to the bride’s family; and the Maasai custom of blessing people by spitting on them.9 Such representations of African customs rarely put the customs in context and leave Westerners judging Africans and their customs as strange. That fits the definition of exotic. These texts and images socially construct an African reality that often barely represents what Africans experience in their own societies

When asked what they had expected to find in Africa, they provided words much like the ones described in Chapter 1, especially poor, dangerous, hot, underdeveloped, violent, tribal, and spiritual.