Synopses & Reviews
Brilliantly written and thoroughly engaging, the new edition of this groundbreaking book examines the full range of African-European encounters from an unfamiliar African perspective rather than from the customary European one. Updated to include new research, maps, and illustrations,
Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850, Second Edition, concludes with an expanded epilogue that extends the themes of African-European commercial and cultural interaction to the present day. By featuring vivid life stories of individual Africans and drawing upon their many recorded sentiments, David Northrup presents African perspectives that persuasively challenge stereotypes about African-European relations as they unfolded in Africa, Europe, and the Atlantic world between 1450 and 1850.
Acclaimed by students in classroom settings ranging from secondary schools to graduate colloquia, the text features thematically organized chapters that explore first impressions, religion and politics, commerce and culture, imported goods and technology, the Middle Passage, and Africans in Europe. In addition, Northrup offers a thoughtful examination of Africans' relations--intellectual, commercial, cultural, and sexual--with Europeans, tracing 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, pointing out which themes in Africa's continuing discovery of Europe after 1850 were similar to earlier patterns, and why other themes were different.
Brief, inexpensive, and accessible, the second edition of Africa's Discovery of Europe offers an insightful look at the tumultuous and enduring relations between these two continents.
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
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.
Table of Contents
Lists of Maps and IllustrationsPreface
Chapter One: First Sights--Lasting Impressions
Elite Africans in Europe to 1650
Enslaved Africans in Europe
Discovering Europeans in Africa
Southeast Africa, 1589-1635
Kongo Cosmology
Chapter Two: Politics and Religion
The Meanings of Religious Conversion
Benin and Warri
The Kingdom of Kongo
Swahili and Mutapa
Ethiopia
Conclusion
Chapter Three: Commerce and Culture
African Trading Strategies
The Eighteenth Century
Language, Trade, and Culture
Sexual Encounters
Conclusion
Chapter Four: Atlantic Imports and Technology
Evaluating Inland Trade
Textiles and Metals
Tobacco and Distilled Spirits
Guns and Politics
Economic and Social Consequences
Chapter Five: Africans in Europe, 1650-1850
African Delegates and Students
Servants High and Low in Continental Europe
Anglo-Africans
Scholars and Churchmen
Conclusion
Chapter Six: Passages in Slavery
Capture in Africa
The Middle Passage
New Identities
Creolization
Africanization
Conclusion
Epilogue: Trends after 1850
Index