Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Africa: Two-volume set

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This is likely to mostly be a reference library sort of item. It's not cheap, and a decent fraction of the historical, geographical, and political coverage can be found on wikipedia or other, free, online references. Its value, therefore, comes at least in part as being a respectable reference for a high school research paper. I'd expect college students to use the primary source materials instead. Henry Louis Gates lends his impressive background as a testament to the seriousness of the project.

Do take a look at the sample entry, linked from amazon, which is the entry on Nigeria. This gives a good feel for the amount of coverage available even in a thick pair of volumes such as these. The entry covers the history, especially post-Colonial in some detail, but has little coverage of the cultural works of Nigeria or much depth in looking at the current political situation there. This is a natural limitation in trying to cover a full continent in a pair of volumes which can be lifted by one person.

The main limitation of these books, other than the limit of how much can be covered in books of this size, is the lack of material written by Africans. Much of the work is from scholars of Africa, writing from a distance. In fact, many of these individuals are better known for their work in African-American studies. The African-American experience seems to color some of the entries, and not just the obvious ones related to slavery or the African diaspora, but the entries on African religious life appear to be filtered through the experience of Black churches in America.

Okay, that said, these are impressive volumes and we can look forward to the day when scholars at the Universities of Cairo, Harare, and Monrovia edit the 7th edition...