“This book stands as a remarkable achievement and will be the choice volume on modern African history for some time to come.”
—International Affairs
“A number of introductions to African history aimed at the undergraduate and general reader have appeared in recent years. Reid’s text stands out among these as an invaluable teaching‐tool due to its concise but appealing tone, its clear style, and its sensitive treatment of Africa’s often tumultuous past and contested present‐day experiences. This is an excellent introduction to Africa for the student reader.”
—History
“This is a comprehensive, appealing and highly‐accessible history of modern Africa which portrays the continent’s turbulent past and contested present in all its variety and complexity. Its combination of sound scholarship, clear writing and humane understanding make it an important contribution to understanding of recent African history.”
—Bill Nasson, University of Cape Town
“This is the book for which I have been waiting. The author has done all of us a great service in providing such an effective teaching tool.”
—Richard Waller, Bucknell University
Covering the major regions of the world, each history in this series provides a vigorous interpretation of its region's past in the modern age. Informed by the latest scholarship, but assuming no prior knowledge, each author presents developments within a clear analytic framework. Unusually, the histories acknowledge the limitations of their own generalizations. Authors are encouraged to balance perspectives from the broad historical landscape with discussion of particular features of the past that may or may not conform to the larger impression. The aim is to provide a lively explanation of the transformations of the modern period and the interplay between long‐term change and “defining moments” of history.
Published
A History of Modern Latin America
Teresa A. Meade
Forthcoming
A History of Modern East Asia
Charles Armstrong
Chosen Nation: A History of the American People since 1886
Maurice Isserman
Europe since 1815
Albert Lindemann
A History of Russia since 1700
Rex Wade
THIRD EDITION
This edition first published 2020
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Edition History
John Wiley & Sons Ltd (2e, 2012); Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 2009)
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Reid, Richard J. (Richard James), author.
Title: A history of modern Africa : 1800 to the present / Richard J. Reid.
Description: Third edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2019. | Series: Concise history of the modern world | Includes index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019014831 (print) | LCCN 2019015533 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119381952 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119381778 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119381921 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Africa–History. | Africa–Historiography. | Africa–Colonization–History. | Decolonization–Africa–History. | Slave trade–History–Colonies.
Classification: LCC DT20 (ebook) | LCC DT20 .R45 2019 (print) | DDC 960.3–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019014831
Cover image: © Robert Muckley / Getty Images
Cover design by Wiley
Still for Anna and May, and now also for Thea.
Main vegetation zones of Africa. Source: From M. Crowder (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 8: c.1940–c.1975 (Cambridge, 1984), p. 194, Map 5; © 1984 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Physical Africa. Source: From J. Iliffe, Africans: The History of a Continent (Cambridge, 1995), p. 2, Map 1. © 1995 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Atlantic Africa in the nineteenth century.
Central Africa in the nineteenth century. Source: From J. E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5 c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
West Africa c.1865. Source: From J. E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5: c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), Map 7; © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Eastern and southern Africa in the nineteenth century.
East Africa c.1870. Source: From J.E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5: c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), p. 281, Map 10; © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
The Horn of Africa in the nineteenth century. Source: From J. E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5: c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Southern Africa in the nineteenth century. Source: From J. E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5: c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), p. 354; © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
North Africa in the nineteenth century. Source: From J. E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5: c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), p. 100, Map 6; © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Egypt and the Nile Valley c.1800. Source: From J. E. Flint (ed.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5: c.1790–c.1870 (Cambridge, 1976), p. 12, Map 1; © 1976 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
The early phase in the partition of Africa, to c.1887. Source: From R. Oliver and G.N. Sanderson (eds.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 6: 1870–1905 (Cambridge, 1985), p. 140, © 1985 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
The partition continued: Africa c.1895. Source: From R. Oliver and G.N. Sanderson (eds.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 6: 1870–1905 (Cambridge, 1985), p. 146, © 1985 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Partition complete: Africa c.1902. Source: From R. Oliver and G.N. Sanderson (eds.), Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 6: 1870–1905 (Cambridge, 1985), p. 152, © 1985 by Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission from Cambridge University Press.
Colonial economics (1): areas of European farming. Source: From B. Davidson, Modern Africa: A Social and Political History, 3rd ed. (London and New York: Longman, 1994), p. 15, Map 2. © 1994 by Basil Davidson. Reproduced with permission of Taylor and Francis.
Colonial economics (2): mineral exploitation and railways. Source: From B. Davidson, Modern Africa: A Social and Political History, 3rd ed. (London and New York: Longman, 1994), p. 49, Map 5. © 1994 by Basil Davidson. Reproduced with permission of Taylor and Francis.
Decolonization. Source: From G. Arnold, Africa: A Modern History (London: Atlantic Books, 2005), p. xxii. © 2005 by Guy Arnold. Reprinted with permission from Atlantic Books Ltd and the author.
Postcolonial cash‐crop economies. Source: From B. Davidson, Modern Africa: A Social and Political History, 3rd ed. (London and New York: Longman, 1994), p. 222, Map 10. © 1994 by Basil Davidson. Reproduced with permission of Taylor and Francis.
Postcolonial mineral exploitation. Source: From B. Davidson, Modern Africa: A Social and Political History, 3rd ed. (London and New York: Longman, 1994), p. 235, Map 11. © 1994 by Basil Davidson. Reproduced with permission of Taylor and Francis.
Modern African nation‐states.
Ruler of a kingdom in transition: King Gezo of Dahomey, with Prince Badahun, in 1856. Source: BLM Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.
An aspect of Kumasi, capital of Asante, in the 1820s. Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library. Source: The New York Public Library/ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da‐71ff‐a3d9‐e040‐e00a18064a99/Public Domain.
An East African ivory porter in the mid‐nineteenth century. Private Collection/The Stapleton Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library. Source: The New York Public Library/ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da‐6e21‐a3d9‐e040‐e00a18064a99/Public Domain.
Commercial pioneers: Seyyid Barghash, Sultan of Zanzibar (1870–88), with his advisors. Source: Photograph courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Neg 13462.
Slaving violence in East Africa: the massacre of Manyema women at Nyangwe, c.1870. Source: The British Library Board, The British Library, B 224 DSC.
The state‐builder: Mirambo of the Nyamwezi, in the early 1880s. Source: Reproduced from London Missionary Society/Council for World Mission Archives.
Mutesa, kabaka of Buganda (c.1857–84), with his court, late 1870s. Source: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images.
Vision of African genius: Shaka, king of the Zulu, c.1816–28. British Library/HIP/Topfoto. Source: Reproduced with permission of The Trustees of the British Museum.
Romanticized Africa: Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt portrayed in The Battle of Heliopolis, by Leon Cogniet (c.1850). Source: Photograph courtesy Mathaf Gallery, London.
Cairo in the mid‐nineteenth century. Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Tab. b.13. Source: Reproduced with permission of University of Cambridge.
Ethiopian depiction of the battle of Adwa, 1896. © The Trustees of the British Museum. Source: PvE/Alamy Stock Photo.
“The aftermath at Omdurman,” from the Illustrated London News, 1898. Source: Reproduced with permission of Mary Evans/ILN Pictures.
New order in Uganda: the young Kabaka Daudi Chwa at Namirembe Cathedral, Kampala, 1902. Source: ©The British Library Board, British Library, W24/2136 DSC.
Lord Lugard and Northern Nigerian chiefs, London Zoo, c.1925. Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Source: Reproduced from Fox Photos/Stringer.
African view of the colonial order: Congolese wood carving from the 1920s. Source: Reproduced with permission of Werner Forman Archive/Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, Tervuren.
Urban idyll: Freetown, Sierra Leone, c.1960. Source: Interfoto/Alamy Stock Photo.
For the empire? West African troops in action in Burma, c.1943. Imperial War Museum Q 53630. Source: Reproduced with permission of AP Images.
Military tradition: officer and men of the Kings African Rifles, Uganda. Source: Courtesy of the Council of the National Army Museum, London.
Kwame Nkrumah, first leader of independent Ghana. Source: akg‐images/ullstein bild.
Hastings Banda, first leader of independent Malawi. Source: Central Press/Getty Images.
The cost of violence: funeral of the victims of the Philippeville massacres in Algeria, 1955. Source: © Charles Courriere/Paris Match/Scoop.
Response to insurgency in Kenya. Source: Popperfoto/Getty Images.
Nelson Mandela and associates at the Treason Trial, South Africa, 1956. Source: Drum Social Histories/Baileys African History Archive/africanpictures.net.
Anarchy in the Congo, 1960: Patrice Lumumba is arrested by Mobutu’s soldiers. Source: © Bettmann/CORBIS.
Power in the postcolonial state: President Mobutu of Zaire (Congo), 1984. Source: © AFP/Getty Images.
New alliances: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt. Source: Stan Wayman/Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images.
Victims: famine in northern Ethiopia, mid‐1980s. Source: Finn Frandsen/AFP/Getty Images.
Victims: a father brings his wounded daughter to an EPLF hospital, Eritrea, early 1980s. Source: Photo by Mike Goldwater.
Humanitarianism or neo‐imperialism? A US soldier in Mogadishu, Somalia, 1992. Source: © Peter Turnley/CORBIS.
Protesters gather at Tahrir Square in Cairo April 1, 2011. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square calling for the demands of the revolution that toppled Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak from power to be met. Source: Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany.
Irresistible momentum: Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk of South Africa. Source: RASHID LOMBARD/AFP/Getty Images.
Events can be relied upon to leave the historian looking either prescient or foolish. Either way, the best that can be done is what has been attempted here: to bring the narrative up to date, and to highlight, by expanding the references, the key scholarly trends, and at least some of the key literature. Once again, my thanks go to those fellow travelers who, responding to Wiley's request, anonymously provided feedback on the previous edition; to my own friends and colleagues who offered constructive comments, including on behalf of their own students; and to the editorial team at Wiley for proposing a new edition and supporting its completion. I have become even more painfully aware of the inherent weaknesses of a general history, but I am even more convinced, in an ever‐changing world, of the need to attempt one. And the failings in this text remain, of course, my own.
I am now more keenly aware than ever before what a vulnerable creation is a general history, especially one that runs to the present. Thanks go to Wiley‐Blackwell for the opportunity to perform some reconstructive surgery. I am also grateful to both published reviewers and providers of less formal feedback on the first edition for their suggestions and comments. As ever, the flaws are mine.
Whatever merits this book has are in large part thanks to the many people who have educated, inspired, and assisted the author in a myriad of ways over a number of years. These are too many to list in full here. But I should like to record my gratitude to just a few of them. Christopher Wheeler, now at Oxford University Press, suggested the book while he was still at Blackwell, and I am very grateful to him for the opportunity; Tessa Harvey and Gillian Kane at Wiley‐Blackwell have been a pleasure to work with. Heartfelt thanks go to Richard Waller and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on an earlier draft. Murray Last, Robin Law, John McCracken, and Andrew Roberts have taught me more than they realize. Friends and colleagues at the University of Asmara in Eritrea and at Durham University and the School of Oriental and African Studies in the UK provided environments conducive to conceptualization and writing. Friends in eastern Africa have been both inspirational and questioning. Any remaining inadequacies are my responsibility.