The period covered in this volume begins with the emergence of anti-slave trade attitudes in Europe, and ends on the eve of European colonial conquest.

Borno (in northeast Nigeria) is notorious today as the home of an Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram, whose insurgency is a major security threat, but it was once the heartland of the Kanuri-speaking royal empire of Kanem-Borno, renowned throughout Africa and beyond, which in its later incarnation, the Bornu Empire, lasted from 1380 to 1893. This book offers the reader the first modern history of Borno, drawing upon sources in London, Berlin, Paris, Kaduna and Maiduguri and recently released 'migrated archives'. As its longevity suggests, what is particularly remarkable about Borno is the permanence of its boundaries-its territorial integrity-which dates back centuries, and the political and social identities that such borders framed in the minds of its inhabitants.

This is the first published account of the role played by ideas of honour in African history from the fourteenth century to the present day. It argues that appreciation of these ideas is essential to an understanding of past and present African behaviour. Before European conquest, many African men cultivated heroic honour, others admired the civic virtues of the patriarchal householder, and women honoured one another for industry, endurance, and devotion to their families. These values both conflicted and blended with Islamic and Christian teachings. Colonial conquest fragmented heroic cultures, but inherited ideas of honour found new expression in regimental loyalty, respectability, professionalism, working-class masculinity, the changing gender relationships of the colonial order, and the nationalist movements which overthrew that order. Today, the same inherited notions obstruct democracy, inspire resistance to tyranny, and motivate the defence of dignity in the face of AIDS.

This book addresses the Jihad movement that created the largest African state of the 19th century: the Sokoto Caliphate, existing for 99 years from 1804 until its military defeat by European colonial troops in 1903. The author carves out the entanglements of jihadist ideology and warfare with geographical concepts at Africa’s periphery of the Islamic world: geographical knowledge about the boundary between the “Land of Islam” and the “Land of War”; the pre-colonial construction of “the Muslim” and “the unbeliever”; and the transfer of ideas between political elites and mobile actors (traders, pilgrims, slaves, soldiers), whose reports helped shape new definitions of the African frontier of Islam. Research for this book is based on the study of a very wide range of Arabic and West African (Hausa, Fulfulde) manuscripts. Their policies reveal the persistent reciprocity of jihadist warfare and territorial statehood, of Africa and the Middle East. Stephanie Zehnle is Assistant Professor (JProf) of Extra-European History at Kiel University (Christian-Albrechts-Universität). Her work on African and trans-continental history includes research on the history of Islam, human-animal relations, and comics in Africa.

The spectre of Boko Haram and its activities in Nigeria dominates both media and academic analysis of Islam in the region. But, as Alexander Thurston argues here, beyond the sensational headlines this group generates, the dynamics of Muslim life in northern Nigeria remain poorly understood. Drawing on interviews with leading Salafis in Nigeria as well as on a rereading of the history of the global Salafi movement, this volume explores how a canon of classical and contemporary texts defines Salafism. Examining how these texts are interpreted and - crucially - who it is that has the authority to do so, Thurston offers a systematic analysis of curricula taught in Saudi Arabia and how they shape religious scholars' approach to religion and education once they return to Africa. Essential for scholars of religion and politics, this unique text explores how the canon of Salafism has been used and refined, from Nigeria's return to democracy to the jihadist movement Boko Haram.

This history of African slavery from the fifteenth to the early twentieth century examines how indigenous African slavery developed within an international context. Professor Lovejoy discusses the medieval Islamic slave trade and the Atlantic trade as well as the enslavement process and the marketing of slaves. He considers the impact of European abolition and assesses slavery's role in African history. The book corrects the accepted interpretation that African slavery was mild and resulted in the slaves' assimilation. The new edition incorporates recent research, revised statistics on the slave trade demography, and an updated bibliography.

This book explores the relationship between state formation and political identities in the context of Sudan's conflict. Idris examines how hierarchy was historically constructed and politically institutionalized in the Sudan, acknowledging the centrality of the historical legacy of slavery and colonialism in Sudan's postcolonial crisis

First published in 1994, this volume brings together essays from the celebrated scholar of African history, Nehemia Levtzion. The articles cover a wide range of themes including Islamization, Islam in politics, Islamic revolutions and the work of the historian in studying this field. This collection is a rich source of supplementary material to Professor Levtzion’s major publications on Islam in West Africa. This book will be of key interest to those studying Islamic and West African history.

A panoramic global history of Africa in the age of imperialism Africa’s long nineteenth century was a time of revolutionary ferment and cultural innovation for the continent’s states, societies, and economies. Yet the period preceding what became known as “the Scramble for Africa” by European powers in the decades leading up to World War I has long been neglected in favor of a Western narrative of colonial rule. The African Revolution demonstrates that "the Scramble” and the resulting imperial order were as much the culmination of African revolutionary dynamics as they were of European expansionism. In this monumental work of history, Richard Reid paints a multifaceted portrait of a continent on the global stage. He describes how Africa witnessed the emergence of new economic and political dynamics that were underpinned by forms of violence and volatility not unlike those emanating from Europe. Reid uses a stretch of road in what is now Tanzania—one of the nineteenth century’s most vibrant commercial highways—as an entry point into this revolutionary epoch, weaving a broader story around characters and events on the road. He integrates the African experience with new insights into the deeper currents in European societies before and after conquest, and he shows how the Africans themselves created opportunities for European expansion. Challenging the portrayal of Africa’s transformative nineteenth century as a mere prelude to European colonialism, The African Revolution reveals how this turbulent yet hugely creative era for Africans intersected with global intrusions to shape the modern age.