Rating: 
Summary: A TRUE WONDER AMONG REFERENCE BOOKS!!!
Review: I recently purchased this massive volume as a gift to myself for a recent job promotion. It is wonderful. The African Diaspora is well represented in this volume. I am using this beautiful book as a valuable resource for an upcoming article I am working on for my graduate courses dealing with African and African-American writers. Although the price of this book is expensive, once you buy it and add it to your collection, price becomes irrelevant. Any student and/or lover of Africa should have this book in their home library.
Rating: 
Summary: Africana: The Experience of the African and African Am
Review: re: Africana: Appiah & Gates today i finally broke down and purchased this seemingly valuable book; only to become frustrated - sorely disappointed and then angry ... it really befuddles my mind, how someone could put so much effort, hard work and many hundreds of hours into compiling this "encyclopedia" per sé, yet omit including a comprehensive index. such a piece of work - all it's worth, is virtually wasted, if one is use this encyclopedic masterpiece of immense proportions; yet being unable to search an index and/or find easy access to necessary facts and dat- let alone being able to cross-reference. what this book is going to mean to myself - someone who continually researches these many issues is negligeable ... this book is bound to gather dust on my laden bookshelves ... grrr ... what a pity ... sigh ... my autobiography "The Long Nights© - the continuous struggle for survival (a work in progress) will most certainly have well defined indexis - footnotes - including a glossary - together with terminology - pertaining to southern africa - it's people, culture, cutoms, tradition and languages ... my intention is to enlighten the reader - give them a real insight to the complexities of my country and not have them second-guess what it is, that i am saying/referring to, by assuming - (incorrectly of course) that they are eu fait with africa ... i still think that the publishers/editors of "basic civitas books" need to supply an insert to this valuable work - in order to do it true justice - make it's true worth come to the fore ... owen/sharif/mshengu
(living in the diaspora)
Rating:
Summary: Africana: The Experience of the African and African Am
Review: re: Africana: Appiah & Gates today i finally broke down and purchased this seemingly valuable book; only to become frustrated - sorely disappointed and then angry ... it really befuddles my mind, how someone could put so much effort, hard work and many hundreds of hours into compiling this "encyclopedia" per sé, yet omit including a comprehensive index. such a piece of work - all it's worth, is virtually wasted, if one is use this encyclopedic masterpiece of immense proportions; yet being unable to search an index and/or find easy access to necessary facts and dat- let alone being able to cross-reference. what this book is going to mean to myself - someone who continually researches these many issues is negligeable ... this book is bound to gather dust on my laden bookshelves ... grrr ... what a pity ... sigh ... my autobiography "The Long Nights© - the continuous struggle for survival (a work in progress) will most certainly have well defined indexis - footnotes - including a glossary - together with terminology - pertaining to southern africa - it's people, culture, cutoms, tradition and languages ... my intention is to enlighten the reader - give them a real insight to the complexities of my country and not have them second-guess what it is, that i am saying/referring to, by assuming - (incorrectly of course) that they are eu fait with africa ... i still think that the publishers/editors of "basic civitas books" need to supply an insert to this valuable work - in order to do it true justice - make it's true worth come to the fore ... owen/sharif/mshengu
(living in the diaspora)
Rating:
Summary: Africana: The Experience of the African and African Am
Review: re: Africana: Appiah & Gates today i finally broke down and purchased this seemingly valuable book; only to become frustrated - sorely disappointed and then angry ... it really befuddles my mind, how someone could put so much effort, hard work and many hundreds of hours into compiling this "encyclopedia" per sé, yet omit including a comprehensive index. such a piece of work - all it's worth, is virtually wasted, if one is use this encyclopedic masterpiece of immense proportions; yet being unable to search an index and/or find easy access to necessary facts and dat- let alone being able to cross-reference. what this book is going to mean to myself - someone who continually researches these many issues is negligeable ... this book is bound to gather dust on my laden bookshelves ... grrr ... what a pity ... sigh ... my autobiography "The Long Nights© - the continuous struggle for survival (a work in progress) will most certainly have well defined indexis - footnotes - including a glossary - together with terminology - pertaining to southern africa - it's people, culture, cutoms, tradition and languages ... my intention is to enlighten the reader - give them a real insight to the complexities of my country and not have them second-guess what it is, that i am saying/referring to, by assuming - (incorrectly of course) that they are eu fait with africa ... i still think that the publishers/editors of "basic civitas books" need to supply an insert to this valuable work - in order to do it true justice - make it's true worth come to the fore ... owen/sharif/mshengu
(living in the diaspora)
Rating:
Summary: Africana is a source of information against racial bias
Review: The Havard eminent professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claimed sometime in 1998/99 in the Time Magazine that the Institute of African and Afriacn-American Studies in Havard will produce an encyclopedia on African and African-American history, culture and civilization that will be so powerful no one will be able to say any longer that Africa never had a culture or civilization before the foreign infiltration especially western intrusion. Considering the social historical construction and insults and assults on one's culture and aesthetic of what it means to be 'black` and the attitudes of europeans resulting from century old propaganda of white racial supremacy from various mass media, l thought that enterprise will be a mission impossible. Gladly enough, Africana is a fait accomplei! As an academic who always have to carry the "blackman's burden" i.e. defending my 'race` and African humanity, Africana is a database and a source of inspiration not only to people of African anscestry but to human race as a whole, since African history and contribution to human civilization have almost without a trace being bleached out of world history. The critical essay on W.E.B DuBois by Cornell West is a proof that this encyclopedia is not an exercise in hero worshiping. And even then,to slemnize people who have energetically and positively contributed to posterity is legitimate. This makes me wonder, if Wole Soyinka the Nigerian nobel laurete would ever have had the opportunity to contribute to this historical document had the late Nigerian military dictator Sani Abacha had the chance to butcher him to death like he did to Ken Saro Wiwa and many others. In other words, we as a people and a segment of human race also need to preserve our prophets and heroes. A friend of mine whom I showed this book to (a white man by the way, who belongs to a minority in Germany)remarked that we Africans have waited for too long and did too little to document our history unlike some other minority in diaspora, who also had a history of discrimination, oppression and suffering. In a way, this Africana makes plausible the demand for reparation for slavery as a token of justice for the desolation of Africa and its people both in Africa and in disapora, in the same manner that that united states of America and Europe deal with the injustice perpetrated against the Jews during the holocaust. With Africana, I do not have to be an advocate for Africans, we have now a powerful instance of reference for anyone who is interested. More grease to the elbows of the Havard dream team. Robert Ajani.
Rating: 
Summary: Low quality scholarship
Review: This book in too many parts is like a report rather than the product of those who have done primary research in the field. Too many authors employ secondary sources indiscriminately and let their personal biases supersede the facts. For example the author of the article on ancient Egypt basically dismissed the initial 1500 years ( a millennium and a half!) of Egyptian history in favor of a left-handed atack on the work of Diop. Just the facts of the subject would have been fine. If the author had wanted to discuss the race of the people all he had to do was to factuallly state the migration patterns into the area. The section on Queen Nzinga sounds like Portuguese propaganda-much like British propaganda against the Oba on the Gold Coast.She was at war with the Portuguese.Yet the author simply repeats this distorted view. Another problem is that the articles have no list of refereneces as is done with the encyclopedia Britannica. Africana deserves high quality just as does Britannica.Dr. Dubois would have rejected this work because of its poor scholarship.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Source of Information on Black Experience
Review: This encyclopedia is a wonderful source of information on all aspects of the African experience, both on the African continent itself and in the diaspora. Without being ideological, it celebrates the Black experience by summing up the fruits of many decades of scholarly research into Black culture and history. The articles that I have read are well written and reliable in the information they provide, while also remaining accessible to a general audience. (I regret a bit that there are no bibliographies to direct the reader towards further readings on each topic.) The volume, lavishly illustrated, is so heavy that one could use it for advanced workouts... That the publishers have managed to publish it at such an extremely reasonable price is in itself an amazing achievement. This book should be on the bookshelf of every educated person of African descent, and of every American, whether black or white.
Rating:
Summary: Not just for Africans and African-Americans
Review: This is a fabulous, comprehensive and fascinating piece of work. Like most encyclopedias, you can open it anywhere and start reading for pure pleasure and knowledge. It would be unfortunate if many of my fellow Whites dismissed this work as something only of interest to Blacks. You can learn a lot about Black people in Africa and America from this book but you can learn just as much about White history. Much of their history is our history, too, just as son much of our history is theirs. We are one people. This book belongs in any home where knowledge, understanding and the simple joy of good reading are important.
Rating:
Summary: Not just for Africans and African-Americans
Review: This is a fabulous, comprehensive and fascinating piece of work. Like most encyclopedias, you can open it anywhere and start reading for pure pleasure and knowledge. It would be unfortunate if many of my fellow Whites dismissed this work as something only of interest to Blacks. You can learn a lot about Black people in Africa and America from this book but you can learn just as much about White history. Much of their history is our history, too, just as son much of our history is theirs. We are one people. This book belongs in any home where knowledge, understanding and the simple joy of good reading are important.
Rating:
Summary: Only fair rating
Review: This is one of the better encyclopedias on African Americans. But I can't figure out how they could put Denzel Washington and Aretha Franklin in this book and forget Dr. Vernon Johns.
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