General history of Africa VIII : Africa since 1935

For a long time, all kinds of myths and prejudices have concealed the true history of Africa from the world at large. African societies were looked upon as societies that could have no history. In spite of important work done by such pioneers as Leo Frobenius, Maurice Delafosse and Arturo Labriola, as early as the first decades of this century, a great many non-African experts were unable to rid themselves of certain preconceptions and argued that the lack of written sources and documents made it impossible to engage in any scientific study of African societies. In face, there was a refusal to see Africans as the creators of original cultures which flowered and survived over the centuries in patterns of their own making and which historians are unable to grasp unless they forgo certain prejudices and rethink their approach. The situation has changed significantly since the end of the Second World War and in particular since African countries became independent and began to take an active part in the life of the international community and in the mutual exchanges that are its raisond'étre. An increasing number of historians have endeavoured to tackle the study of Africa with a more rigorous, objective and open-minded outlook by using, with all due precaution, original African sources. In this context the importance of the eight volume General History of Africa which UNESCO is publishing speaks for itself.