J. Middleton – New Encyclopedia of Africa (5 Volumes)

Автор: J. Middleton
Название книги: New Encyclopedia of Africa (5 Volumes)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: История Азии и Африки
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

This New Encyclopedia of Africa is the successor to the Encyclopedia of Africa
South of the Sahara that was conceived in 1991 by the late Charles E. Smith of
Simon & Schuster and was eventually published by Charles Scribner’s Sons of
New York in 1997. It became the standard four-volume encyclopedia of Africa:
earlier works were either too short, too limited in content, old-fashioned, or out
of print. It was obvious that a million and a half words could not include
everything known about Africa south of the Sahara, at the time usually referred
to as ‘‘Black Africa.’’ Information changes continually and classifications alter
with amazing speed: our original plans required continual rethinking as to
approach, structure, content, length of entries, and choice of authors. But we
were able to set out coherently what was at the time generally known and
accepted about human endeavor and achievement in Africa south of the Sahara.
Today and in future years other definitions, classifications, and interpretations
have replaced and will continue to replace both those of 1997 and those of today.
We have now produced a new, larger, and broader encyclopedia, the New
Encyclopedia of Africa, again under the Charles Scribner’s Sons imprint. This
encyclopedia includes coverage of northern Africa, and thus the entire continent,
in both space and history; is some two million words in length; and has five
volumes. The original Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara was prepared
and published not long after the formal end of the colonial interlude, when
colonial overrule and the Cold War were still very much part of the experience of
its inhabitants. The New Encyclopedia of Africa is prepared and published only
ten years later, but Africa and the world around it are very different now from
what they were then, and this encyclopedia is very different in intention, viewpoint,
and philosophy from its predecessor. Some of the situations and problems
of African peoples today are longstanding while others are new; some have been
classified as solely ‘‘African,’’ others as introduced by external interference or
aggressive commercial or military exploitation. In both cases there have been
deep and complex changes in the idea of ‘‘Africa,’’ of how both Africans and non-
Africans have envisaged its peoples and their continent as Africa has become a
more central part of the world. In V. Y. Mudimbe’s words the ‘‘inventions’’ and
‘‘ideas ‘‘ of ‘‘Africa’’ are different today from what they were a few years ago; the
analysis of these differences and of the idioms and ambiguities by which they are
expressed form the basis for this new collection of information and the knowledge
based upon it.
The earlier encyclopedia described what was even then relatively little known
to the world at large, as the unveiling of distant peoples. We continue this process
here, as ever more is learned about the continent every year, even every month.
Yet even though the veil has been lifted there is still much ignorance. Outside
Africa, with the continuing process of modernization, there remains a widely held
assumption that the image of a ‘‘traditional’’ Africa has been merely an expression
of an ‘‘Orientalism’’ as applied to Africa. Even now many writers still describe
African institutions and cultures in the past tense, as though Africa today remains
‘‘primitive’’ and ‘‘exotic,’’ unable or unwilling to change. What has often been
overlooked and is difficult to appreciate are the strength and the beauty of both
the ‘‘traditional’’ and the modern Africas, which together form a single phenomenon
and cannot be separated. This ‘‘new’’ encyclopedia does not merely look at
the new: it also looks at the traditional cultures, of which so much more is today
known than in the past. There is no essential distinction between past and
present; there never has been, but many observers have been blind and their
viewpoints biased.
We have therefore invited authors to emphasize the powers and the complexities
of the societies of Africa as forming an integral part of a single world. Their
peoples are no longer distant or exotic but are as central as any others anywhere:
there is no longer isolation but instead a conscious commonality. Whereas
previously Africa was usually described from the viewpoints of those outside it,
it can now also more clearly and vividly be seen from the perspectives of its own
peoples. Some writers have suggested that the earlier and largely Eurocentric
views should be ignored and superseded by ‘‘Afrocentric’’ ones. We hold that we
need both, as together they comprise a single worldview and understanding.
THE STRUCTURE OF THE ENCYCLOPEDIA
An encyclopedia is not a dictionary, a string of articles each concerned to define a
single item of information. An encyclopedia has an integrated structure, and an
order of articles of which the pieces of information are chosen to fit together so as
to form a single coherent body of knowledge. This New Encyclopedia of Africa
comprises 1,121 articles. Of these, 821 are essays, both long and short, on
specific topics, many of them placed in some 86 composite entries on wider
topics or in 53 composite entries on all the particular independent countries; 96
of them are on particular towns and cities. There are also 305 biographies, of
both present-day and historical figures. We have decided not to include separate
articles on selected ethnic groups, as it is not for us to emphasize certain groups
merely because they are well known outside Africa; but the larger ones are
mentioned in the entries on particular countries and a thousand or so groups
are listed in Appendix C. There are over 650 maps, diagrams, portraits, photographs,
and tables; three appendices, one on the outline chronology of Africa,
one on the periodization of history that we have used in the encyclopedia, and
the aforementioned Appendix C; a very detailed general index; and each volume
has an eight-page color-insert section on various aspects of African cultures. An
encyclopedia’s coverage can never be complete enough for every reader, but we
have done what can now be done.
Many encyclopedias are produced today by publishers who advertise for
voluntary authors. In our case we, as members of the editorial side of the project,
comprising the editor in chief, the editor, and the advisers, assistant editors, and
consultants, have chosen the authors, basing our choices on our experience and
knowledge of their abilities and promise. This careful selection has been a long
and difficult task, indeed the most difficult of any leading to the publication of
this work. Our end result brings together Africanists whose expertise goes back
over sixty years as well as the best minds of the upcoming generation. Some sixty
of the major entries have stood the test of time and are reproduced here (with
appropriate updating) as superior to anything we could now commission. We
have tried to balance female and male authors, and authors from Africa itself,
Europe, North America, and the remainder of the world, although their origins
are no longer as relevant in today’s ‘‘global’’ world as they used to be. Their
identities and fields of scholarship reflect the fact that ‘‘Africa’’ is no longer an
isolated and disregarded place but instead an integral part of a single world, and
that there is but one image of Africa that today comes from those within it as well
as from those outside it.