Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ch. 1. Early prehistory of Africa -- Ch. 2. Later prehistory: the development and spread of farming and pastoralism -- Ch. 3. The impact of iron in northeast and west Africa -- Ch. 4. The Early Iron Age and Bantu migrations -- Ch. 5. North and northeastern Africa to 1000 AD -- Ch. 6. Trans-Saharan trade and the kingdom of Ancient Ghana -- Ch. 7. Islam and the Sudanic states of west Africa -- Ch. 8. Eastern Africa to the sixteenth century -- Ch. 9. Trading states of the east African coast to the sixteenth century -- Ch. 10. Later Iron Age states and societies of central and southern Africa to 1600 AD -- Ch. 11. North and northeast Africa to the eighteenth century -- Ch. 12. The Atlantic slave trade, sixteen to eighteenth century -- Ch. 13. West African states and societies to the eighteenth century -- Ch. 14. Central and eastern Africa to the eighteenth century -- Ch. 15. Southern Africa to the eighteenth century.