Kevin Shillington trained history teachers at the University of Botswana in the 1980s. His years of teaching experience in Africa have included African History at school and university level. He holds an MA and PhD in African History from the University of London, UK.

Primary market: core reading potential for undergraduate History and African Studies students taking a broad introductory survey course on African history (particularly in the US).

Secondary market: background reading for upper-level undergraduates taking more specialised modules on African history, such as Pre-Colonial Africa, Modern Africa, Africa Since Independence or region-specific African history courses.

Introduction
SECTION ONE: EARLY AND LATER PRE-HISTORY
1 Early prehistory of Africa
2 Later prehistory: farming and pastoralism in tropical Africa and Ancient Egypt
SECTION TWO: EARLY IRON AGE
3 The impact of iron in north and west Africa
4 The Early Iron Age in central, eastern and southern Africa
SECTION THREE: RELIGION AND EMPIRE IN NORTHERN AND WESTERN AFRICA
5 North Africa to 1000 CE
6 Trans-Saharan trade and the kingdom of ancient Ghana
7 Islam and the Sudanic states of west Africa
SECTION FOUR: RELIGION, TRADE AND CHIEFTAINCY IN EASTERN, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
8 Eastern Africa to the sixteenth century
9 Later Iron Age states and societies of central and southern Africa to the sixteenth century
10 Trading towns of the east African coast to the sixteenth century
SECTION FIVE: WEST AFRICA IN THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
11 The Atlantic slave trade, sixteenth to eighteenth century
12 West African states and societies, to the eighteenth century
SECTION SIX: STATE RENEWAL AND FORMATION IN NORTH, EAST, CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA
13 North and north-east Africa to the eighteenth century
14 Central and eastern Africa to the eighteenth century
15 Southern Africa to the eighteenth century
SECTION SEVEN: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY BEFORE THE EUROPEAN 'SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA'
16 West Africa in the nineteenth century
17 The ending of the Atlantic slave trade
18 Christian Missions, new States and pre-colonial 'nationalism'
19 Central and east Africa in the nineteenth century
20 Pre-industrial southern Africa in the nineteenth century
21 North and north-east Africa in the nineteenth century
SECTION EIGHT: THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL AND POLITICAL IMPERIALISM, LATE-NINETEENTH CENTURY
22 Colonial conquest and African resistance in east, north-central and west Africa
23 Industrialisation, colonial conquest and African resistance in south-central and southern Africa
SECTION NINE: THE IMPACT AND NATURE OF COLONIAL RULE, 1890-1945
24 Consolidation of empire: the early period of colonial rule
25 Africa between the wars: the high tide of colonial rule
26 The Second World War and Africa
SECTION TEN: THE OVERTHROW OF COLONIALISM
27 The winning of independence (1)
28 The winning of independence (2)
29 The winning of independence (3)
SECTION ELEVEN: AFRICA SINCE INDEPENDENCE
30 African responses to the colonial legacy
31 The challenges and dilemmas of development: debt and international aid
32 Contemporary Africa
Further Reading
Index.