In a vast and all-embracing study of Africa, from the origins of mankind to the AIDS epidemic, John Iliffe refocuses its history on the peopling of an environmentally hostile continent. Africans have been pioneers struggling against disease and nature, and their social, economic and political institutions have been designed to ensure their survival. In the context of medical progress and other twentieth-century innovations, however, the same institutions have bred the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen. Africans: The History of a Continent is thus a single story binding living Africans to their earliest human ancestors.

'Reading this seminal work afresh has made me appreciate just what an extraordinary achievement it really is.'

John Parker Source: Journal of African History

'... an expert guide for the general reader to enjoy and to comprehend as background to what is so often in the news. Iliffe writes lucidly and is not afraid to express complicated judgements in simple language, as we are told that, at present day, Africa is experiencing both crisis and renewal and the greatest of disasters embodies hope.'

Source: The Historical Association