From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up. Border designs, pastel pages, and striking layouts that include art objects, full-color photographs, and contemporary engravings give these series entries immense visual vitality. Each book opens with an introduction, followed by a historical account of each kingdom. Epilogues bring the areas into the 20th century. Mann's writing is interesting and generally clear, though aspects of organization are confusing, e.g., chapters on single kingdoms are not gathered into units. A few puzzling inaccuracies crop up, such as naming Milton Obote as Zimbabwe's first prime minister (Monomotapa). Multicolored maps, while easy to read, do not include some features considered important enough to be mentioned in the text, and many terms in the fascinating sidebars are not found in the indexes. Partly because they draw on a wealth of good secondary sources, the chapters on Kongo may provide the best treatment of an African kingdom for young people, for they are unique in their detail and in the way that they deal with the variety of sources used by historians in finding out about Africa's past. Archaeological and linguistic evidence are discussed in the introduction. Monomotapa is weaker, in part because it covers so much ground but also because, for Zulu, Shaka, and the Mfecane, Mann relies uncritically on common South African sources that reflect history written in a white-dominated society.?Loretta Kreider Andrews, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Highlighted with beautiful full-color photographs, this book weaves together colorful legends, oral histories, and recorded events to examine the development and history of the ancient kingdoms of Africa.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
