Best West African History Books of 2025

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a riveting first-person account of Ishmael Beah's experience as a child soldier. Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a heartbreaking story of how he fled attacking rebels at the age of twelve and was later picked up by the government army, where he was forced to commit terrible acts. The book is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty. This book is a must-read for everyone, as it offers a glimpse into the world of child soldiers and what it means to be human.

Beyond Bilal: Black History in Islam by Mustafa Briggs is an insightful exploration of the relationship between Islam and Black History. The book sheds light on the often-overlooked contributions of black figures in Islam, from prophets and scholars to the history of Islam in Africa. Briggs also includes his lectures on the history of Islam in the Americas and female scholarship in the Islamic tradition. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the intersection of Islam and Black History.

David Hackett Fischer's African Founders is a groundbreaking work that explores the little-known history of how enslaved Africans and their descendants shaped American culture in its early years. Fischer's extensive research reveals how much the country was influenced by African ideals of freedom, linguistic skills, farming techniques, and ethical principles. The book offers a rich portrait of the variety of cultures and places from which captives came, transforming our understanding of America's origins. This is a phenomenal work of cultural and demographic history that will appeal to both general readers and scholars alike.

Are the tribes of Israel really "lost" or were they hidden as prophesied in Psalms 83?The Bible seems to indicate a multi national conspiracy to hide Israel and wipe out the memory of who they really are. If this is true, then history as we know it has been hijacked, and it is only through searching that we will find the truth. In this book, you'll find the answers to the following questions, just to name a few:Why does a 1747 English map place the tribe of Judah on the "slave coast" of Africa?Why do slave ledgers show slaves being registered with Hebrew names fresh off of the ships?Why did slaves sing songs in Hebrew and call out to Yah for help?Why did Christ mention the slavery of Israel as a sign of the end of the age?Are "the times of the Gentiles" coming to an end?If you are 100% honest with yourself as you find the answers to these questions, your eyes will be opened. If you’re ready to start this eye opening adventure through scripture then keep reading. ISRAEL IS STILL A NATION TO GOD AND ALWAYS WILL BE!“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” – Jeremiah 31:35-37

The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts. Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship’s perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda’s journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown. From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community’s triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts is an exciting and informative narrative of Abdel Kader Haidara's heroic effort to save tens of thousands of ancient Islamic and secular manuscripts from Al Qaeda's destruction in Timbuktu. Joshua Hammer's writing style is engaging, and he provides a fascinating insight into West African history. The book is a reminder that ordinary people can do extraordinary things to protect their culture's beauty. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu is a must-read for history buffs and anyone interested in preserving the world's cultural heritage.

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman traces the history of the Atlantic slave trade by recounting a journey she took along a slave route in Ghana. Following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast, she reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy and vividly dramatizes the effects of slavery on three centuries of African and African American history.. The slave, Hartman observes, is a stranger―torn from family, home, and country. To lose your mother is to be severed from your kin, to forget your past, and to inhabit the world as an outsider. There are no known survivors of Hartman's lineage, no relatives in Ghana whom she came hoping to find. She is a stranger in search of strangers, and this fact leads her into intimate engagements with the people she encounters along the way and with figures from the past whose lives were shattered and transformed by the slave trade. Written in prose that is fresh, insightful, and deeply affecting, Lose Your Mother is a "landmark text" (Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams).

Oliver's well-researched biography of Mansa Musa reads like an exotic tale of gold, glory, and adventure. During his long reign as Mali's emperor, Mansa Musa led his empire into its Golden Age; presided over a spectacular, 60,000 person, 9,000 mile pilgrimage; founded a university in Timbuktu; and helped revolutionize architecture across the Sudan. Oliver does not allow Musa's story to get bogged down in detail by seamlessly weaving a lot of history into his narrative and by supplying curious readers with an extensive Glossary.Many of the African ancestors of today's African-Americans came from West Africa. From 700 -- 1600 A. D., one after the other, three great, black, commercial empires dominated West Africa. They were powerful, prosperous, complex, stable -- and large. At its height, the Empire of Mali was the size of all of Western Europe.Well-crafted and fast paced, Oliver's book is enhanced by a liberal sprinkling of enjoyable drawings, clear and helpful maps, and interesting photos. Not only are Mansa Musa's triumphs and dilemmas clearly portrayed, but so are the lives of the people of medieval Mali.

From the rear cover of this 738 page book: "A phenomenal achievement, clear, authoritative and compelling......Thomas Pakenham's fine book tells the story of this particular gold rush with admirable and judicious poise....Contains some of the best-known episodes of 19th-Century history as well as some of the most mythologized and colorful characters the world has ever seen.....Livingstone and Stanley, Brazza and Rhodes, Kitchener and Gordon, Lugard and Jameson.....Highly readable." and "Taking the entire continent as his canvas, Pakenham has painted a picture of heroism and horror. He writes both with compassion and with an effective combination of detachment and judgement. A splendid book."