Tracing the continent's journey from its earliest origins to the era of independence, A Short Story of Africa challenges conventional narratives by spotlighting the profound influence of the region's physical isolation over four millennia. Drawing extensively from first-hand African perspectives, it offers a uniquely Africa-centric lens on global history, shedding light on the distinctive paths taken by African nations.

Rather than focusing on the growth of violence and disruption during the nineteenth century, Peter Robertson highlights the impact of the spread of South American food-plants and the resulting population increase which, assisted by the spread of firearms, increasingly broke down Africa’s age-old model of peaceful expansion into unoccupied space. Because of the greater accessibility of European sources, most historians have tended to over-anticipate and over-estimate the influence of Europe in Africa’s history, but only in the final decade of the nineteenth century did black Africans begin to share the stage in their historical drama. This book describes Africa’s unique civilisation produced in part by its isolation – much of which has remained resilient in terms of social and spiritual values – as well as exploring the intellectual and socio-economic responses of Africans to European imperial interventions beginning in the twentieth century.

A compelling synthesis of meticulous scholarship and narrative detail, this book invites readers to reassess Eurocentric assumption and engage with the vibrant complexities of African history.

About the author

Peter Robertson’s lifelong interest in history began at Oxford, where he studied Arabic and Persian, a choice inspired by his early childhood in the Middle East. He became an oil company executive, initially in the Gulf, and spent much of his career in West Africa. His interactions with African friends and colleagues drew him increasingly into their own debates over how African nations were meeting the challenges of modernisation and integration into the global order. This experience led to him retiring early from the oil business to devote himself to the study of African history – and to writing this book.