The revised and fully updated edition of the seminal, sweeping history of post-colonial Africa.

Africa has been coveted for its riches ever since the era of the Pharaohs. In past centuries, it was the lure of gold, ivory and slaves that drew fortune-seekers, merchant-adventurers and conquerors from afar. In modern times, the focus of attention is on oil, diamonds and other valuable minerals. L[...]

Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980 after a long civil war in Rhodesia. The white minority government had become an international outcast after refusing to give in to the inevitability of black majority rule, and finally the defiant white Prime Minister Ian Smith was forced to step down.[...]

Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. And yet, though vital clues still remain hidden, scientists have over the last century transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. In "Born in Africa," Martin Meredith follows s[...]

A thorough and up-to-date biography of Nelson Mandela by Africa scholar Martin Meredith

Uncovering the unexplored archive in the history of poetics, the author shows that the history of prosody is tied to the ways Victorian England argued about its national identity.[...]