Within the past thirty years, the narrative established by sympathetic colonial administrators, pioneer African American scholars, nationalist African historians, and the standard explanations of state formation here and elsewhere have been challenged. Recent archaeological research, com-bined with that of historians, art historians, and anthropologists, necessi-tates the rethinking of these established narratives. Excavations in Jenne-Jeno (old Jenne in the modern nation of Mali) have opened an entirely new paradigm of the origins of complex urban-centered societies in Africa (and by extension elsewhere in the world). The emergence of towns in the west-ern and probably central Sudan occurred far earlier than indicated by Arab chronicles and oral traditions.

These scholars sought to “decolonize” the African past by demonstrating that, far from being the “primitive” realm of European imperialists’ mythologies, Africa had a long and noble tradition of statebuilding like other areas of the world.

Until recently, scholars attributed state formation in the savannas of West Africa to the introduction of the camel into the western Sahara sometime after 1700 BCE.

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

deter-minist views that Africans were incapable of organizing stable “civiliza-tions” or states without external leadership. The once commonly accepted premise that the first states in Africa were the result of common patterns of “divine kingship,” diffused from Egypt or elsewhere, have been gradually abandoned by most knowledgeable scholars of African history. The equally misguided view that civilization originated in sub-Saharan Africa is also unacceptable to most scholars.

The Igbo are neighbors of the highly politically centralized Yoruba, but their political system is much dif-ferent. Instead of centralized kingdoms headed by powerful “kings” and their advisers, the Igbo had no centralized system of governance. Rather they lived in politically autonomous villages. That is, each village was politically separate and was politically not directly connected to neighbor-ing villages. Within the villages, there was not a system of hereditary chiefs. Village decisions were made by a headman and a council of elders that selected the headman. The absence of a centralized system of govern-ment did not mean that there were no systems or institutions of governance among the Igb

crop-raising revolution was a great step forward for humankind. Clearly, it is only with the invention of crop cultivation that the human species could create the elaborate social and cultural patterns with which most people today would be familiar. Furthermore, it is in advanced hoe-farming and agricultural societies (those using animal traction) that the separation between rulers and ruled, inequality between men and women, and the institution of slavery evolved.

Major fishing communities in Africa most likely predate the development of techniques for growing food crops and taming animals. Many settle-men

As in most gathering and hunting societies, women’s economic functions, along with childbearing, are absolutely crucial. Women typically generate more food through gath-ering than the men who hunt animals or look for game that has already been killed. Gathering and hunting societies appear to have developed d

unsettled continent with vast herds of wild animals, spectacular gorges and waterfalls, and trackless jungles, forests, and great deserts

It is home to more than 1.2 billion people who are divided among more than 2,000 geographically distinct ethnic groups

his is followed by the era of colonial rule (1884–1951)

The State Department has maintained a Bureau of African Affairs since 1957

Boston University, Harvard University, Howard University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Florida, University of Kansas, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Wisconsin at Madison

nsti-tutions include the School of Asian and African Studies at both Beijing For-eign Studies University and Shanghai International Studies University

one must have a firm understanding of the predominantly Muslim countries throughout North, East, Central, and West Africa

Arab culture and Islam

19 percent of the African total).

African leaders have pledged their loyalties at various times and in various degrees to the global ideologies of capitalism, fascism, Islamic revivalism, Maoism, Marxism, and socialism.

More recently, landmark events have included South Africa’s transition to black majority rule in 1994 under one of the globe’s most progressive constitu-tions that “forbids discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orien-tation” (Section 9, South African Constitution); the election of Ellen J

treacherous, villainous, or inhumane

et most Africans never see many wild animals because they live in towns or in parts of the continent where the human population is dens

An American curious about Africa living in the nineteenth century would have found fewer sources of information than an American living in the twenty-first century. If he or she learned about Africa, it would have been primarily through popular magazines and periodic world fairs and exhibitions.

In an ideal world, we would abandon our stereotypes about Africa and learn to deal with Africans as they really are. Human cognition does not allow this, however. Everybody stereotypes. And we do it about practically everything. The reason for this is, first of all, that we are biologically wired to try to make sense of reality, even when it makes no particular sense. Whether through science, history, literature, religion, or whatever, humans strive to understand and categorize what is in front of them. We also stereotype because it is virtually impossible to know everything that is going on in reality, and therefore we are bound to base our judgments on partial informatio

A war in Congo? A drought in Ethiopia?

If we do want to learn about Africa, it is difficult to find ample and accurate information in our popular media such as television and newspapers. Africa and its people are simply a marginal part of American consciousness.

ere?