SPECIAL COMMENDATION in Africa's 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century. The series is illustrated throughout with maps and black and white photographs.

Assesses the importance attached by African societies to their past and the growth and development of African historiography. This is followed by accounts of the primary literary sources, the oral and living traditions and Africanarchaeology and its techniques. There are further chapters on linguistics, migrations and historical geography before the second part of the book which deals specifically with earliest man and the prehistory of Africa according to geographical area. Specific chapters are also devoted to prehistoric art, agricultural techniques and the development of metallurgy.
The series is co-published in Africa with seven publishers, in the United States and Canada by the University of California Press, and in association with the UNESCO Press.