The Book:
Great Kingdoms of Africa
Edited by John Parker
University of California Press
2023
The Talk:
Since starting this Substack about a year ago, I’ve read books on Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and South America.
I wanted to give into my aggressively generalist tendencies. Few things make me feel more alive than discovering a new idea or a new way of seeing the world. And reading books from other eras and other cultures is one of the best ways I’ve found to be surprised, stunned, floored by things I’ve never thought about before.
My other goal has been to cross all imaginary boundaries and build new bridges—for me, and hopefully for you, dear reader. I want to find the hidden connections. I want to find the differences in the familiar and the familiar in the differences. Whenever I hear a little voice inside me go “Oh, that’s not really my thing,” I know I’m destined for it eventually. Because I want to go on an adventure—and books are how I go. Because I want to become a different person—and books are how I change. To my mind, it is would be a sad thing if I ended my life surrounded by the same books, the same thinkers, the same ideas I started out with. I want to imagine myself to places I can’t imagine.
In our minds we have great freedom, and the exercise of that freedom through learning is one of the few pleasures in life with no down sides. Learning only harms when we decide to stop. As Willa Cather puts it, “The end is nothing. The road is all.”
All that to say, Africa (aside from Egypt), has been absent from my reading so far. An oversight in need of addressing. So I’ve been on the lookout for intriguing philosophy, history, and literature books on Africa, and I was really happy with my first pick: Great Kingdoms of Africa.
An invitation to African history
This 2023 book is divided into nine chapters, each written by a different historian, each covering a different African kingdom: Nubian Egypt, Sudanic Empires, Ethiopia, Yoruba & Benin, Kongo, Buganda, Hausa Kingdoms & Sokoto Caliphate, Asante, and Zulu.
The result is a collegiate level overview of historical highlights across the continent. It’s readable for the non-expert, though still academic. It also introduces the reader to the latest state-of-the-discipline debates surrounding African history, and these themes give a unity to the book:
An emphasis on continuity over disruption
In his introduction, John Parker explains that African history has traditionally been divided up into “precolonial,” “colonial,” and “postcolonial” eras. And yet the bulk of the colonial era lasted less than a century (from the Scramble for Africa in the 1880s to the 1960s). Within the scope of all African history, the colonial period was a brief one. Postcolonial African nations today draw upon the traditions of their precolonial past and see themselves as continuing the rituals and practices of the centuries before them, even if country names and borders often don’t match historical antecedents.
An ambivalence toward kingship
In many African cultures there is a myth of a “stranger king,” someone who arrives to the community from the outside and founds a new government over the people. This person is a hero—but also an alien figure. Not one of us. In this way, the king is both the center of the community, the genius of the political order, but also an outsider.
Several of the authors in the book explore how kings were “managed” by the community. Sometimes kings were occupied for months at a time with rituals, or secluded away, or required by tradition to travel around constantly. Some kings were elected by councils, and some were put through extreme trials (like living in poverty for several months prior to their coronation) to teach them how to lead well.
In addition, Parker notes that many regions of Africa through much of its history had organized societies and complex economies without any kings at all. “The ability of many of the continent’s peoples to govern themselves without recourse to kings may be just as important as the state-building efforts of would-be dynastic rulers,” writes Parker.
The book raises an intriguing question about why we (post-monarchists) place so much emphasis on kings as a status symbol and icon of “greatness” or “civilization,” while non-king based systems of governance in history are left unexplored. Kings write a lot of history, but why should we take their word for it?
An elevation of consensus over violence
Wars and cruelty also get a lot of attention in history, which may make us wonder what we are leaving out. The historians in the book frequently note those eras in which kings gained influence through spiritual attraction rather than military conquest. It’s a different kind of power—a creative, charismatic, cultural power—that influences political and diplomatic outcomes, though it is often forgotten in the big histories we tell.
Where next?
As a person who knows little about African history, I enjoyed this book a lot. Every page was something I didn’t know! It also left me with a lot of interesting things to investigate further. Here’s my list:
The Mali epic poem Sundiata
Camara Laye’s modern interpretation of the Sundiata, Guardian of the Word
Timbuktu, the Songhay Empire, and Mansa Musa I
Ethiopian Christianity and monasticism
Rastafarianism and Haile Selassie
Yoruba religion, orisa, and its spread to Brazil, Cuba, etc
Ife terracotta and bronze heads
Kongo culture and traditions in the Americas
The Anglo-Zulu War
If you know of any great books from or about Africa, I would love to hear about them in the comments below.
Related:
How to survive in ancient Egypt
Hypatia of Alexandria: A philosopher for polarized times
Nollywood: The World’s Fastest-Growing Film Industry (Film Threat)
Winyo - Gari Teri (YouTube)