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008History· 1972· Burkina Faso

Histoire de l'Afrique noire

Joseph Ki-Zerbo

The first sweeping history of Black Africa written by an African historian.

Ki-Zerbo, a Burkinabe historian, produced one of the first comprehensive syntheses of sub-Saharan African history written by an African, running from prehistory to independence. He insisted that Africans reclaim their past from colonial distortion and treat oral tradition, archaeology and African sources as legitimate evidence. Widely taught across Francophone Africa, it embodied the drive to write the continent's history from within rather than through European eyes.

Its legacy. He went on to help direct UNESCO's multi-volume General History of Africa.

Author
Joseph Ki-Zerbo
First published
1972
Genre
History
Theme
The Continent's Own History