![]() For an understanding of the ways precolonial African warfare and military systems compared to others around the globe, see Gat 2006. Mazrui 1977 includes repeated references to the precolonial era and its legacies. Those looking for a very short, clear overview of precolonial military forces, with good comparisons between some of the more significant military organizations of the mid-19th century (Asante, Zulu, Sokoto, and Ethiopia), should examine Vandervort 1998, and especially the introduction and first chapter to that excellent work on imperial warfare in Africa. Reid 2012 quickly covers all of African military history in one thin volume but discusses the precolonial period extensively. However, a few superb works on broader or adjacent periods include general overviews of the precolonial period, and Lamphear 2007 is a superb edited volume of previously published articles discussing a wide variety of specific subjects covering various regions, time periods, and topics. For those looking for a full monograph dedicated to precolonial military history, this is the essential work. Stapleton 2013 discusses military history in each of five geographic regions (North, West, East, Central, and Southern) in turn. In fact, while we now have at least one good survey covering all of African military history, a few covering the period of “colonial warfare,” and a handful focused on the postcolonial period, only one book-length general survey of precolonial African warfare exists at this time-the first book in Timothy Stapleton’s three-volume work A Military History of Africa. ![]() Perhaps the smallest category of work on precolonial African warfare is that of the general survey and overview. General Overviews of Precolonial African Military History Even within these more narrow parameters, scholarship in the field of precolonial African warfare is not as sparse as is often supposed and recently has been growing substantially in both quantity and quality. Finally, this article will include works that cover all of Africa except those parts of North Africa that are more properly considered to be part of the Mediterranean or Arab worlds, i.e., modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt. This approach includes the detailed study of wars and warfare, but it goes far beyond it. In keeping with the now-well-understood definition of military history, this article will include pieces that discuss the broad range of political, economic, social, and cultural influences that military organizations, ideas, and activities have on societies. This article defines precolonial warfare as any military activity occurring within and between African societies and peoples before the onset of European political and military control. At least three terms need to be defined to establish the boundaries of this bibliographic article-at what point do we end the period of “precolonial” warfare, how narrowly will we define “warfare,” and how much of “Africa” will be included. While this has too often been the case, this bibliography shows that other historians have been busy creating a surprising quantity of scholarship on precolonial African history that covers all significant periods of time and all major regions, though not necessarily evenly. When a new world goes online, TW stats will automatically update to support that world.As John Lamphear writes in the introduction to his fine edited volume of journal articles in African military history, many historians have tended “to downplay the importance of military history and the role of conflict in the African historical experience.” He then claims that this “has been especially true for pre-colonial military history” (p. TW Stats contains tools, statistics and tracking that will enhance your TW experience.
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