A wealth of information about African history

I bought this audiobook to get a better understanding of the rich history of Africa/Africans, and as a default African-Americans, BEFORE slavery took place. Our history does not start at slavery but from a much culturally richer place. This book fulfilled my desire to know in a more robust way the richness of our culture. I recommend that everyone read and learn from this book.

7 people found this helpful

This is terrible

Don’t bother with this. It sounds like someone padded out a Wikipedia article, and very badly. The writing is sloppy and sounds like a first-year university student’s essay. It’s too bad as it’s a fascinating subject, and the narrator has done an admirable job — but the text is just terribly written.

3 people found this helpful

Content is OK but the Writing is amateurish

The book is OK for an introductory work. The book doesn’t explain why the kingdoms chosen before 300 were all well to the north (and mostly northeast) of the continent – one expects that it’s a matter of where written records are available to historians. Including the Ghana and Mali empires in a volume of ancient history is a stretch according the standard usage of “ancient history”. The book’s writing is OK but it should have been regularly improved by a more articulate editor. It would be hard to count the number of times I improved wording of a just finished sentence in my head.

1 person found this helpful

Disappointed to say the least

It’s actually very short. The entire book is repeated. They only focused on northern africa and eritria/ethiopia. Underwhelmed

1 person found this helpful

History Requires Disclosure

Wonderful and in depth historical share. Looking forward to learning more about this fascinating topic. Thank you.

1 person found this helpful

Not what I expected

I was very disappointed with this book. There was minimal information given in a very dry and droning manner. If you are looking for a detailed history that grab your attention, avoid this book.

1 person found this helpful

Lacks feeling and context

I was disappointed as perhaps I was expecting something with more context i.e. in relation to other historical events and the significance of the history covered in the book. For a lot of the book, it feels like a restatement of facts and therefore is not enjoyable as an audiobook

Much detail about a history that is not well known

This book provides an overview of the histories of several ancient cultures within Northern Africa, and then a deeper dive into the history of Kush.

African antiquity beyond the Mediterranean

Most of the books available on African antiquity focus heavily if not exclusively on the Mediterranean, either Egypt or Rome or Greece or Carthage. Lots beyond that here.

Uncommon history

Having lived in Africa for 4 years, I tried to learn the history of the places I lived and visited. These books (there are two distinct sections that cover different information) cover history which most of people don’t know about. Very worthwhile book.
I did see one oddity in the way the material was presented. When addressing all the various religions from these societies, he only referred to one religion’s beliefs as myths - Christianity. Unnecessary bias!