A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution

There was nothing i disliked about this book. The author offers a totally coherent economic explanation of the disastrous effect of the slave trade on the whole of west and central southern Africa. The first half of the book is particularly enlightening and one of the mnost coherent studies I have ever read. Hpowever, I will admit that I was familiar with some of the issues, because I had just finished "The Golden Rhinoceros" - a very different book in style, but one that shades into "A Fistful of Shells" as regards content. Most importantly, the first section of the book shows conclusively that many parts of Africa were modern economies that used money, simply not in the form that Europeans could recognise. The second part of the book is harder to follow, simply because the content is that much more familiar. We all know something about the slave trade in the eighteenth century, for that is when Britain (sort of) abolished it. Making sense of the economic mayhem caused by the dominance of the trade in captives has always been something I have yearned to read is one of the most pleasing aspects of the work. The second half in particular is not easy going, but persevere and you will emerge a wiser person

A welcome and long overdue summary of pre-colonial history in West Africa. The addition of Toby Green's own captivating anecdotes from his in depth travels in the region bring levity and a degree of empathy to a potentially dry analysis of first-hand archive material. A must read for anyone with an interest in African history or for those Western historians that seem to ignore the complex and sophisticated civilisations that inhabited this area prior to slavery and Colonial capture. A wonderful compliment to his other very personal book about the current belief systems in the region -Meeting the Invisible Man: Secrets and Magic in West Africa.

I came across ’A Fistful of Shells’ when searching for a book that could give more insight into Africa’s own history. So much of what I had learnt about Africa was viewed from a European perspective and the aim of this work was to correct this imbalance - something, I believe, Green achieves brilliantly. This book puts African history in its place among the wider context of the world. Though such a massive continent, many incorrectly assume Africa has no history (as Trevor-Roper incorrectly postulated) and this work takes great strides to disprove this.I must say the scope of this book and amount of research it must have taken is huge - it spans more than 5 centuries and a huge number of countries across west Africa which may, while hugely informative, may be to its detriment. As I myself do not have a great knowledge of African geography, I did find myself getting lost from time to time amidst Green’s region-hopping, especially later in the book. However, I did leave this book feeling like I knew a great deal more about the overarching and general periods of west Africa’s history, how it related to history of Europe along the way and how Africa has a thriving and complex history of its own, not merely a resource used and abused by Europeans. I credit Green for his hard work in creating such a detailed history and I’m sure I will revisit this book in the future to learn hopefully even more.

Really an excellent book and one I've been recommending to all my friends. I wanted something that went beyond late colonial African history and this delivered in spades. It really helped reshape my sense of West African history and the historical currents that have shaped that part of the world. A book I'll remember reading and still be thinking about for a long time to come.

Really excellent book which opens up West African history in ways not seen before, by using a wide variety of sources and the authors experiences from travelling widely in the region.

This is such an amazing book!

I have to admit to pretty much giving up halfway through this book. I was becoming punch-drunk with facts and inferences and found it hard to extract the salient points. It achieved its objective to some extent in that it reduced my complete ignorance of the history of Africa and the (almost universally detrimental) impact of the European traders and colonisers. It also gave me some glimpses of the richness of pre-colonial African society in all its diversity. However it only did that by forcing me to wade through treacle. I felt it was a book by an academic for other academics, and it was therefore not for me. If the aim was to inform the less academic reader it needed to shorter and less dense. There are some important points in it that could be argued once with pertinent examples, but to present a case against free trade (for example) multiple times comes across as a series of snide comments. Or maybe it just jarred my preconceptions. I wanted to like this book, but ultimately I became irritated with it.

Toby Green is Senior Lecturer in Lusophone African History and Culture at King's College London. This is a well researched account of the history of West Africa and its relationship with Europe and how its participation in the slave trade with European nations contributed to its eventual decline. There's a particular focus on economics, with Green recounting its trade history and as such, it's quite an academic read (although there's plenty here for lay readers to appreciate). All in all, I thought it was a fascinating look at a period and region that is all too often dismissed and on that basis is well worth a read.

This is a rich and extremely well written book that leaves you reassessing what you thought you knew about West African History. It is very clear from the historical detail and analysis of interactions between African Kingdoms and the various European nations that Professor Green spared no effort researching this book which is evidenced by his extensive Bibliography. He does a wonderful job of explaining how economic and cultural factors intersected with each other and how that set the stage for one of most profound tragedies in human history. In a very objective and scholarly way, he explains how West African history was an integral part of the development of our current global economic and structures. One could read this book several times and learn something each time. Professor Green wrote a truly groundbreaking book that should be a required read in any international history course and must for any African Studies course.

It's been a while since a book significantly changed the way I think about either a region of the world or an entire epoch of world history, and this book did both. Aside from providing an extremely convincing and well-argued thesis about the causes of the economic divergence between West Africa and Europe that I won't try to summarize here, the author does a great job of re-centering West Africa in the last millennium of world history and exploding Hegel's (widely-subscribed) notion that "Africa has no history." You absolutely do not have to have an especially strong interest in the particulars of West African history to get a lot out of this book. An interest in any of the following will do:"What are the historic origins of African 'underdevelopment'? How did African states change during this era, and how were these changes connected to early globalization? What are the implications of one of the findings of this book: that broadly analogous historical processes took place simultaneously in Africa, Europe and the Americas at this time, especially during the age of revolution? On my reading, one conclusion is that these histories did not somehow evolve separately until the rise of colonialism in the nineteenth century, but rather always grew together."Economics aside, the book's initial focus on the centuries prior to and during the early stages of the growth of the Atlantic slave trade are actually surprisingly interesting and thought-provoking. For example: depictions of medieval Europe being influenced in a big way by changes in West Africa, vignettes of all the many ambassadors stationed at European courts (and Brazil) by African kingdoms starting in the 15th century, and the narration of Kongo as a significant diplomatic player in European affairs in the 17th century - among other things, really changed the way I think about pre-colonial Euro-African relations.One minor fault: in Part 2 of the book, while there's nothing wrong with the thematic focus/organization of the chapters (as opposed to geographic, as in Part 1), I did find that the narrative got a bit convoluted and lost among a deluge of rapidly changing people, places and times - sometimes all within a single page. Judging by the amount of notes and underlines I made, I was considerably less engaged with some sections of Part 2.In sum, if you're even a little interested in world history and issues of development, this book will nicely round out your understanding of the subject.

Many of us in the West have a sort of muddled image of Africans. It's part Tarzan of the Apes swinging from vine to vine over the natives below; part native bearers sweating under loads behind Stanley looking for Livingston; part Shaka Zulu with his assegai wielding impis at Isahlwanda and Roarke's Drift--and maybe a Hollywood native with a bone in his nose and a pot waiting to boil up some cannibal soup.The author here depicts a fascinating West Africa in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There were kingdoms with armies of 60,000 or more men. Gold was being mined and used for trade both with the Arab part of the African continent and with Europe.The fistful of shells in the title refers to cowrie shells, which were used as currency and also for displays of wealth in West Africa at the time.While the author is a professor Lusophone (Portuguese speaking people) History a lot of the book reads as an economic history.It's fascinating and well worth reading.

This almost decade long researched book discusses development of the slave trade but more importantly the long multi cultural, global interaction between the societies and kingdoms across West Africa that traded for centuries with Europeans, including the Dutch and Portuguese, prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade. It’s an amazingly informative book that shares the vast contributions of West African leaders and societies such as 14th century Mansa Musa - still the richest man in history (look him up). Such research and recognition of African contributions to this development of urbanization across Europe and Africa was long overdue. Incredible undertaking and dedication. Highly recommend this book! It should be a part of every World History course.

This is an excellent overview of precolonial Africa and its influence on the world in the period between 1500 and 1800. It has certainly enhanced my understanding of the period and the linkages between the various African kingdoms and the wider world. The writing is academic. but this worth the effort. In fact, it has also changed my view of developments in South Africa during the period and questioning local history in some aspects. Highly recommend.