Danny Bird: You've written a rich and fascinating history of Africa spanning a vast sweep of cultures, regions, personalities and centuries. Did you seek out any particular stories or narratives in preparation for this book?
Zeinab Badawi: When I set about writing this book, it wasn't so much that I was looking for an angle – the angle found me. Back in 2017, I was travelling around Africa making a television series called The History of Africa for BBC World News, and I spoke to dozens and dozens of historians, archaeologists and anthropologists right across the continent. However, without exception, every single one of those academics was so generous with their time that I had to tear myself away from them on every occasion. I thought to myself, “these people are really hungry for a stage” – a global stage, even. They wanted to relate their history to outsiders, and I therefore decided to write a history book about Africa, written from the African perspective.
And that really is the key angle. Although the book is An African History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi, I see myself more as an intercessor between the reader and these marvellous African scholars and intellectuals. And I say ‘marvellous’ because every single one of them would be at home in any of the world's finest academic institutions. In fact, many of them have studied at the world's top universities overseas, but have returned to Africa to ply their trade there instead.
Your book aspires to
