How Eurocentric Education Gets African History Wrong

Further Research Recommendations below.

Check out the original video by Economics Explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8TXQWVsoI

"Why Is Africa Poor" by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson: https://economics.mit.edu/site....s/default/files/publ

Book Recommendations:

Austen, Ralph A. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Conrad, David C. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Chelsea House Publishers, 2010.

Ehret, Christopher. Civilizations of Africa: A history to 1800. Charlottesville: The University of Virginia Press, 2018.
(This one is super long and a bit academic, but covers an extremely broad timeframe and area, and goes much further back than most history books on Africa.)

Fauvelle , Francois-Xavier. The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages. S.l.: Princeton University Press, 2021. (This book covers a lot of topics in African history over a pretty wide area, but isn't overwhelmingly long)

Gomez, Michael A. African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. (Very good book on Medieval Sahelian history)

Parker, John, and David Adjaye. Great Kingdoms of Africa. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2023. (This book features articles written by different scholars on a variety of topics from across Africa, and like The Golden Rhinoceros it's not too long. Great place to get a taste of history from across the continent)

Phillipson, David W. Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC - AD 1300. Oxford: James Currey, 2012.

Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic World: 1400-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007. (Probably my favorite book an Atlantic Africa)

The Cambridge History of Africa (Volumes 1-5 for Pre-Colonial History)

African History-Focused Channel Recommendations:
@FromNothing
@hiddenhist
@Bamise
@hometeamhistory806
@Mrminibagel
@medievalafrica
@ronuspirit

Video Recommendations from channels not specifically focused on African history:
Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa: Crash Course World History #16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvnU0v6hcUo&ab_channel=CrashCourse
Int'l Commerce, Snorkeling Camels, and The Indian Ocean Trade: Crash Course World History #18:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XtBLDmPA0
Kongo: Central African Superpower - African Empires Ep. 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUvfo0Vkr84
What Wheelbarrows can teach us about World History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRnwg3dpboc
Brief History Of Africa Before Colonialism -- How did we get there?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHrGorccjcg
Medieval transport - the beginners' guide (this one isn't related to African history directly, but elaborates on some of the stuff I talked about regarding transportation in this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tdguh1D-fOk&ab_channel=Lindybeige

My own videos on West African History:

The Kingdom of Benin (Edo Empire) | West Africa's Longest Lasting State: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86yPms8fys
The Ghana Empire (Wagadu) - Africa's Land of Gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKV_Fd4vfs

Apparently my citations are too long to include in this description, so I'll put them in a pinned comment.


Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/somasacademy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/somas_academy
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/somasacademy.bsky.social
ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/kalahsoma

00:00 Intro
00:55 Claim: The Sahara Isolated Sub-Saharan Africa
01:25 Trans-Saharan Contact
03:45 Nile Valley and Red Sea Trade
04:10 The Horn and Arabia
04:41 The Swahili Coast and Indian Ocean Trade
05:26 Actual Possible Barriers in Africa
06:11 Claim: Africans Never Developed Farming
07:00 Independent Crop Domestication in Africa
07:58 Introduced Crops in Africa
08:07 Animal Agriculture in Africa
08:52 Spread of Farming in Africa
09:32 Hunter-Gatherer Populations
10:54 MIT Study
12:25 Claims About The Wheel
13:50 Wheel Use in Sub-Saharan Africa
14:14 Saharan Wheels
14:51 Non-Wheeled Transport
16:25 Reasons for the Decline of Wheeled Transport
18:54 Conclusion + Source Recommendations