J. Middleton – Africa. Encyclopedia for Students (4 Volumes)

Автор: J. Middleton
Название книги: Africa. Encyclopedia for Students (4 Volumes)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: История Азии и Африки
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

The highly regarded Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara was published by Scribner in 1997. The editor, John Middleton, has now produced an abbreviated version, appropriate for high-school and undergraduate students and adults. The original included 896 articles. This new version has about 450 entries in just under 1,000 pages. Topics include countries, regions, geographic features, cultural groups, personalities, and general subjects, such as Body adornment and clothing, Oral tradition, and Writing systems.
The preface indicates that many of the original articles have been adapted and updated and that a substantial amount of new information has been added on North Africa. In an effort to make the resource user-friendly, time lines, sidebars, and definitions now appear in margins next to related text; and individual country entries include quick reference fact boxes. Each volume has an eight-page color photo-essay: “People and Culture” in the first volume, followed by “The Land and Its History,” “Art and Architecture,” and “Daily Life” in subsequent volumes. Additional black-and-white photographs and more than 50 maps are also offered.

Despite these enhancements, the work retains a scholarly mien. Although articles range from a few paragraphs to several pages, dense blocks of text with an encyclopedic style of writing may prove daunting to younger researchers. Subjects are covered in depth and include discussions on adult topics such as female circumcision and various cultural attitudes toward homosexuality.

Comparable in scope and level to Willie F. Page’s Encyclopedia of African History and Culture [RBB Ja 1 & 15 02], this offering will be more accessible to researchers because of its straight alphabetical arrangement (African History and Culture is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically). Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students should be seriously considered by high-school, undergraduate, and public library collections that do not own the parent set

Understanding areas outside our own corner of
the globe is always a challenge. This is particularly
true in the case of Africa, a vast continent with a
complex web of indigenous cultures. Yet Africans
make up one-fifth of the world’s population, and
the continent lies at the crossroads between the
Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. What happens
in Africa affects us all.
Moreover, North America’s links to Africa go back
many centuries—first as a partner in the Atlantic
slave trade and later as an ally of European colonial
powers that ruled Africa. The slave trade had a lasting
effect on the history of both North America and
Africa. It brought millions of Africans to this side of
the Atlantic as slaves, forming the basis for black
populations in the Americas. At the same time, the
slave trade divided Africa and deprived it of generations
of young people who would have played a productive
role in society.
A great deal of material about Africa—in textbooks,
newspapers, novels, and films—is superficial,
biased, or even invented. Most of it appears in bits
and pieces and not as part of a comprehensive study
of the region. This work, Africa: An Encyclopedia for
Students, offers a more coherent picture of the continent.
In its pages Africa emerges as a single continent
with unique geographical features, a continuous,
interrelated history, and similar economic,
political, and social problems.
The Scope of the Encyclopedia. In its four volumes,
Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students offers both
a broad and a fairly detailed view of Africa’s land and
its peoples—from the Mediterranean Sea to the Cape
of Good Hope and from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Indian Ocean. Although it is not possible to provide
a detailed treatment of all aspects of the continent in
less than 1,000 pages, the work does bring together
a great deal of vital information and careful analysis.
The student encyclopedia is based on the fourvolume
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara,
published in 1997, of which I was editor in chief.
The original work contains 896 articles by geographers,
historians, anthropologists, linguists,
philosophers, and other experts from Europe, North
America, and Africa. In the past most scholarly
research about the continent came from non-
Africans. Now, however, scholars from Africa play a
leading role in the field. Africans tend to see their
continent in one way, while foreigners have other
perspectives. Combining these different images of
Africa brings us closer to an understanding of the
continent.
Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students covers much of
the same ground as the earlier work at a level suitable
for middle and high school students. Many of
the original articles have been adapted and updated,
and a substantial amount of new material has been
added on North Africa. In addition to articles on
standard topics such as countries, cities, and historical
individuals, the student encyclopedia contains
entries on broad fields of knowledge, ranging from
human origins to music and song, from colonialism
to marriage systems, and from slavery to food and
drink. All articles are arranged in alphabetical order
to make it easy for students to find information.
Features of the Encyclopedia. Alongside the
text column in the pages of Africa: An Encyclopedia for
Students is a marginal column filled with helpful features.
There readers will find time lines placing
events in historical context, sidebars providing interesting
information on a variety of topics, and definitions
of difficult or unfamiliar words used in the text.
Cross-references to related articles appear both within
the text and at the end of entries. Fact sheets
accompany each country article, providing significant
data about the nation’s people, geography, government,
and economy in a convenient format.
The illustrations in the student encyclopedia
bring the people and places discussed in the entries
to life. Each volume has special full-color inserts
devoted to the themes of Peoples and Cultures, The
Land and Its History, Art and Architecture, and Daily
Life. The encyclopedia also includes more than 50
maps of modern nations, ancient kingdoms and
colonial empires, trade routes, and various geographic
features.
The original Encyclopedia of Africa South of the
Sahara took six years to produce and Africa: An
Encyclopedia for Students has taken nearly two more.
No single editor can do everything, and I wish to
thank the publisher, Karen Day, and the senior editor,
John Fitzpatrick, of Charles Scribner’s Sons;
Darryl Kestler of Visual Education Corporation; and
the many members of their staffs. In addition, I
thank the authors and the members of the original
boards of associate editors, advisers, and consultants.
This new student encyclopedia has been very
much a cooperative effort.
John Middleton, Editor