Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience (5 Volume Set) [Hardcover]

Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Editor), Kwame Anthony Appiah (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195170555 | ISBN-13: 978-0195170559 | Publication Date: April 7, 2005 | Edition: 2

Ninety years after W.E.B. Du Bois first articulated the need for "the equivalent of a black Encyclopedia Britannica," Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr., realized his vision by publishing Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience in 1999.

This new, greatly expanded edition of the original work broadens the foundation provided by Africana. Including more than one million new words, Africana has been completely updated and revised. New entries on African kingdoms have been added, bibliographies now accompany most articles, and the encyclopedia's coverage of the African diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean has been expanded, transforming the set into the most authoritative research and scholarly reference set on the African experience ever created.

More than 4,000 articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religion, ethnic groups, organizations and countries on both sides of the Atlantic. African American history and culture in the present-day United States receive a strong emphasis, but African American history and culture throughout the rest of the Americas and their origins in African itself have an equally strong presence. The articles that make up Africana cover subjects ranging from affirmative action to zydeco and span over four million years from the earlies-known hominids , to Sean "Diddy" Combs. With entries ranging from the African ethnic groups to members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Africana, Second Edition, conveys the history and scope of cultural expression of people of African descent with unprecedented depth.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. Grade 9 Up–Thoroughly revised and massively expanded, this monumental work not only serves as a replacement for its 1999 edition, but also merits a place in any academically oriented high school or college collection. Alphabetically arranged but backed up by both a detailed index and a topical list of headers in the final volume, the nearly 4500 entries delve into both African and African-American history, from wide-angled studies of Slavery in Africa and Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Interpretation, to close-focus mentions of Malcom X's Aardvark references and major Zydeco musicians. Most articles are signed and close with see-also references. Illustrations are uncommon but well chosen, a blend of clearly designed maps, charts, and graphs, and sharply reproduced prints or color photos. Though approximately 175 of the biographical entries have been drawn from the American National Biography (Oxford Univ, 2005), none of the resource lists include Web sites, and some details are dated–a table of African-American Academy Award winners ends with 2002, for instance, and the set's introductory chronology stops at mid-2004. However, students seeking information about African music, insight into the failure of school desegregation in the U.S. or the significance of Curt Flood's challenge to baseball's reserve clause, background on the history of colonialism, or hundreds of other historical topics will find both facts and ideas in plenty here.–John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The second edition of Africana is updated and greatly expanded from the one-volume 1999 edition to encompass five volumes (at five times the price). Described as "the first encyclopedia of Africa and her diaspora," Africana chronicles the history and culture of people of African descent in an objective manner, actualizing W. E. B. DuBois' original intention of "a black Encyclopaedia Britannica." Included are more than 4,000 entries, 1,200 more than in the previous volume. Entries new to this edition include African oral literature; Board games; Classicism, black, in the United States; Rethinking Palmares: Slave resistance in colonial Brazil; and Transatlantic slave trade database. Coverage of the African diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean has been expanded. Coverage of literature has also been expanded, with substantial new entries for Literature, black, in 18th-century Britain and the U.S.; Literature, black, in Senegal; and Literature, English-language, in the Caribbean, to name just a few. Many of the entries have been revised for living people and places, and there are updated photographs, maps, and tables throughout. Also new to this edition are a much-needed comprehensive index, a topical index, a chronology, a bibliography arranged by broad subject, and, for country essays, a summary "At a Glance" table that provides data on population, religion, climate, economic activity, government, and more.

Entries vary in length from a few sentences to several pages, usually with a brief definition or overview in bold. Longer entries are signed by their scholar contributors and have a brief bibliography; examples of longer essay entries include DuBois, W. E. B. and Harlem Renaissance. Cross-references to other entries are sprinkled throughout the encyclopedia. Among the categories of topics that are discussed are individuals (Fidel Castro, Cab Calloway); events (Attica uprising, Nat Turner's rebellion); places (Jamaica, Kenya); politics and government (African National Congress, Black Power); the arts (Bebop, Graffiti art, Uncle Tom's Cabin); religion (Islam, Slave religion); and ethnic groups (Lobi, Venda). Coverage is heaviest in the areas of literature and journalism, music, and politics.

While other reference sources generally focus on either Africa or the U.S, Africana is notable for its global coverage beyond just the Western perspective. It remains to be seen how it will compare with the forthcoming revised Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (Macmillan), which has reportedly expanded its scope dramatically. The second edition of Africana is recommended for college and university libraries or any library needing to update its old edition. Susan Gardner
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 3960 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (April 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195170555
• ISBN-13: 978-0195170559
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.7 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 29.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,891,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars No comprehensive Index again!, May 2, 2006

By 

Michael Williams (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience (5 Volume Set) (Hardcover)

As a university professor in African American Studies, I looked forward to the first edition and bought it. But I was disappointed by the woefully lacking index which is also the case with the 2nd edition.

The five-volume 2nd edition is much easier to handle in terms of weight for each volume than the VERY heavy one volume 1st edition. However, one must wonder how Harvard professors (the editors) could allow a lack of a comprehensive index the second time around.

I bought the 1st edition, but I recommend not buying the 2nd edition. If a future edition has a comprehensive index, I will buy and would urge you to buy, as there is a wealth of information.

As for this (2nd) edition, save your money. Use the volumes at your school/university or community library for good general background information on the African and African American Experience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Monumental Work of Prodigious Scholarship, March 2, 2009

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience (5 Volume Set) (Hardcover)

This two million-word compendium of facts and interpretations is the definitive work on the African and African American experience. About a third of it is devoted to each of the main strains of the African Diaspora: Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean.

It does not so much challenge the existing Eurocentric narrative as sidesteps it altogether -- going around and well beyond the historical territory that existed long before the Roman empire, for instance. Plus, it pulls together all the missing links into a very pleasing and integral if only a symbolic whole. And although it is a competing story that begins at the beginning of man "out of Africa," "peopling the rest of the world," and treats the Diaspora in its fullest glory, it is not a scholarly work guilty of multiplying the Eurocentric bias by only replacing it with an equally undesirable African bias.

Inspired by and thus dedicated to W.E.B. DuBois, who had spent the latter part of his life unsuccessfully trying to get just such a scholarly project done, it is a fitting tribute to his legacy both in terms of its high standards of scholarship, and in terms of its comprehensiveness.

As is made clear in the introduction, DuBois migrated to Ghana at the invitation of Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah to complete just such a project as this one. The invitation came only after a long and bitter internecine struggle back in the U.S. among black historians to get funding and to publish an encyclopedia on Africans in the U.S. Although, he died before the project could be completed, this is the project worthy of his fondest dreams, and I have no doubt that he would have been justly proud of it. It is well worth the price.

Fifty Stars