A Tropical Dependency: An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Sudan With an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria

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Summary: A Victorian lady looks at the history of Africa
Review: This book is an extraordinary look at the history of Africa, which Lady Lugard gathered from countless sources, and one would imagine a great deal of it came from the British Library and from the archives of The Times of London, for whom she had for many years been the Foreign Political Correspondent. She had always been known to be an intensive researcher into her subject matter, and one wonders at the months and probably years she put into this undertaking, which became the reference work for so many future books on Africa. Lady Lugard led an extraordinary life and travelled the world on behalf of her newspaper. A little known aspect of her prominent career was that when she first started writing for the Times of London, she wrote under the name of F. Shaw, thereby trying to disguise the fact that she was a woman. Later of course, she was so highly regarded - it really didn't matter and she became Flora Shaw, a personal friend of many of the world leaders (one of her more frequent visitors in later life was Winston Churchill) and was regarded as one of the greatest journalists of her time....specialising in politics and economics. She became world famous when she was subpoened to the Jameson Trial and cross examined on the role played by the Chamberlain Government in the planning of the raid into the Transvaal Republic. Later of course, it became common knowledge that she was used as the go-between the Britiish Government and Cecil Rhodes, and received and sent the cruical telegrams, which resulted in the ill-fated expedition. One of the reasons the press and public were so fascinated by her at the time, was because she was a very beautiful and accomplished woman, and many admirers and feminists, maintained that had she been a man she would have been a British Cabinet Minister. She was a staunch imperialist and this point of view on politics, obviously comes out in her writing without any apology or even the slightest expression of doubt. This in itself holds a certain fascination to the reader of today after the events of the 20th century. So it is important to remember that she wrote this nearly 100 years ago, finalising it in 1905/6, shortly after she married Frederick Lugard (Governor of Nigeria and Governor of Hong Kong and a big imperialistic player in Central Africa in his day). She had had to relinguish her journalist career on marriage as it wasn't the done thing, in those days for a married lady to pursue a career - especially a lady who moved in aristocratic circles. However, what makes Lady Lugard's book so fascinating to read, is once the reader has been quite shaken by her positive and practical assessment of the benefits of slavery, the merits and demerits of Black Labour and Yellow Labour, and her other imperialist beliefs......she goes on to capture with meticulous references, detail and descriptive power, the greatness that Africa once was, and so reveal an enthralling story of a continent. The South African president, Thabo MBeki talks about the African Rennaissance starting in South Africa today....and sceptics might wonder "what" rennaissance, under the mistaken belief that Africa came out of a Darkness. Lady Lugard makes it clear that this was not the case....Africa was great once...and her message is that Africa can be great again. No serious student of African history, politics and economics can afford not to read this book.

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Summary: Anyone who is committed to the Black Community must read
Review: This book is one of the most important books I have ever read. I constantly refer to it whenever I have the opportunity to speak in front of a group. Incredibly insightful, it makes perfectly clear what direction people of African descent need to be headed in if we are committed to positive community development. YOU NEED THIS BOOK! If anyone sees any book that is as important as this please email me to let me know.

Rating:
Summary: Anyone who is committed to the Black Community must read
Review: This book is one of the most important books I have ever read. I constantly refer to it whenever I have the opportunity to speak in front of a group. Incredibly insightful, it makes perfectly clear what direction people of African descent need to be headed in if we are committed to positive community development. YOU NEED THIS BOOK! If anyone sees any book that is as important as this please email me to let me know.