Intended for those interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this work looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. It illustrates key themes in modern thinking about Africa's history with a range of historical examples.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this "Very Short Introduction" looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. Key themes in current thinking about Africa's history are illustrated with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent.

1. The idea of Africa
2. Africans: diversity and unity
3. Africa's past: historical sources
4. Africa in the world
5. Colonialism in Africa
6. Imagining the future, rebuilding the past
7. Memory and forgetting, past and present