Synopses & Reviews
What did Africans think of the first Europeans they saw? Why did some Africans seek political and religious alliances with Europeans? How successful were African traders in acquiring what they wanted from Europeans in the new Atlantic trade?
Africa's Discovery of Europe: 1450-1850 provides surprising answers to these and many other questions.
This groundbreaking book on African-European interactions is the first to look broadly at the subject from an African perspective rather than from a European one. David Northrup explores the African side of this cultural collision as it unfolded in Africa, Europe, and the Atlantic world between 1450 and 1850. Featuring extensive use of life stories and quotations from Africans, the text is organized thematically with chapters devoted to first impressions, religion and politics, commerce and culture, imported goods and technology, the Middle Passage, and Africans in Europe. Northrup examines Africans' intellectual, commercial, cultural, and sexual relations with Europeans and describes how the patterns of behavior that emerged from these encounters shaped precolonial Africa. The book concludes with an examination of the roles of race, class, and culture in early modern times, and suggests which themes in Africa's continuing discovery of Europe after 1850 were similar to earlier patterns, and why some themes were different.
Africa's Discovery of Europe: 1450-1850 is ideal for undergraduate courses on modern African, Atlantic, and world history and is also engaging for general readers.
Review
Advance praise: "In this judicious and sweeping survey, David Northrup astutely examines Africans' active and wide ranging engagements with Europeans over four centuries. Not just victims, Africans proved remarkably resilient and adaptable in their varied encounters with Europeans. Encompassing both collective experiences and individual voices, Northrup paints a rich portrait of the African response."--Philip Morgan, Johns Hopkins University
Synopsis
Interest in African history has been growing rapidly in recent years. The encounters between Europeans and Sub-Saharan Africans--which first began to intensify during the 15th century--are currently a popular area of study. Up to now, however, only the Europeans viewpoint of these encounters has been explored. David Northrup's Africa's Discovery of Europe remedies this imbalance. Northrup explores the African side of this cultural collision as it unfolded in Africa, Europe, and the Atlantic world between 1450 and 1850. The text is organized thematically, with chapters devoted to first impressions, religion and politics, commerce and culture, imported goods and technology, the Middle Passage, and Africans in Europe. It examines Africans' intellectual, commercial, cultural, and sexual relations with Europeans and describes how the patterns of behavior that emerged from these encounters shaped pre-colonial Africa. The book concludes with an examination of the roles of race, class, and culture in early modern times, and suggests which themes in Africa's continuing discovery of Europe after 1850 were similar to earlier patterns, and why some themes were different. Africa's Discovery of Europe is designed to be used in undergraduate courses on Africa and will also have strong appeal to the general reader.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. First Sights - Lasting Impressions
Elite Africans in Europe to 1650
Enslaved Africans in Europe to 1650
discovering Europeans in Africa
Southeast Africa, 1589-1635
Kongo Cosmology
2. Politics and Religion
The Meanings of Religious Conversion
Benin and Warri
The Kingdom of Kongo
Swahili and Mutapa
Ethiopia
Conclusions
3. Commerce and Culture
African Trading Strategies
The Eighteenth Century
Language, Trade, and Culture
Sexual Encounters
Conclusion
4. Atlantic Imports and Technology
Evaluating Inland Trade
Textiles and Metals
Tobacco and Distilled Spirits
Guns and Politics
Economic and Social Consequences
5. Passages in Slavery
Capture in Africa
The Middle Passage
New Identities
Creolization
Africanization
Conclusion
6. Africans in Europe, 1650-1850
African Delegates and Students
Servants of High and Low in Continental Europe
Anglo-Africans
Scholars and Churchmen
Concluding Observations
Epilogue