Originally published in 1959, this book charts the journey made by the author and a Creole journalist from Sierra Leone across West Africa at a time when a political, economic and cultural revolution was taking place. It was not so much the exotic tribal Africa as the new Africa of the politicians, the aspects characteristic of the period of transition that fascinated Crowder. He was struck by the differences produced by years of British and French rule. He talked with governors and the governed wherever he went. Part travelogue, part academic study, this is a fascinating portrait of West Africa on the cusp of monumental change in the second half of the 20th Century.
Prologue. 1.Introduction to Africa 2. The Revolution 3. Old Africa 4. Islam and Northern Nigeria 5. Africa on the Move 6. What Price Independence? 7. Freed Slaves. Epilogue.
Biography
Michael Crowder worked for most of his adult life in West africa, mainly in Nigeria. He was visiting Professor at the University of Lagos, Professor of History at Ahmadu Bello University and founder of the Centre of Nigerial Cultural Studies. He was Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ife and visiting lecturer at the UCLA Berkeley and Columbia University. In 1964 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Senegal.
