A History of AFRICAN SOCIETIES if II to 1870 Elizabeth Isichei & fl r 3 *J st - 6 This newly comprehensive and detailed exploration of the African past, reaching from prehistory to approximately 1870, is intended to provide a fully up-to-date textbook, themarically organized, for undergraduate stu- dentsofAfricanhistory. Reflecting several emphases in recent scholarship, Professor Isichei focuses on the changing modes ofproduction, on gender relations and on ecology, laying particular stress on viewinghistory 'from below'. A distinc- tivethemeistobefoundinheranalysesofcognitivehistory. The work falls into three sections. The first comprises a historiographic analysis, covering the period from the dawn ofprehistory to the end ofthe Early Iron Age. The second and third sections are, for the most part, organised on regional lines; the second section ends in the sixteenth century; the third carries the story on to 1870. Explaining each facet ofthe continent's history with exceptional erudition, balance and sympathy, Professor Isichei displays both an immense learning and a thorough commandoftheliterature. Asecondvolume, nowinpreparation, will coverthe periodfrom 1870 to 1995. 1 A historyofAfricansocietiesto 1870 A history ofAfrican societies to 1870 ELIZABETH ISICHEI UniversityofOtago m Cambridge UNIVERSITY PRESS PublishedbythePressSyndicateoftheUniversityofCambridge ThePittBuilding,TrumpingtonStreet,CambridgeCB2 1RP 40West20thStreet,NewYork,NY 10011-4211,USA 10StamfordRoad,Oakleigh,Melbourne3166,Australia ©CambridgeUniversityPress 1997 Firstpublished 1997 PrintedinGreatBritainattheUniversityPress,Cambridge AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress ISBN 521 45444 1 hardback ISBN 521 455995paperback ( i