Exploring the Impact of Africa and Africans on the Modern World: Born in Blackness

Muhammad K. Johnson: It is a good source to catch up on history that was not taught in school. It is easy to read and gives a prospective not usually expressed in other areas A must read.

United States on Sep 30, 2023

Debbie: It was a great book to explain how Africa helped in the development of the world economy and technological advancement.

United States on Sep 11, 2023

Thomas C. Wallace: Knowledge

United States on Sep 06, 2023

RDRMVCT: Fills in historical gaps in the historical depiction of Africa. Smooth read.

United States on Aug 31, 2023

Nick: Delivers on its promises to show how colonialism and slavery were conditions for the industrial revolution and the modern world, both by providing the exploited wealth it needed, and through the resistance and struggles of those it exploited.

United States on Aug 25, 2023

Christine Brew: No tengo ningun problema con el contenido del libro. Es toda una mina de informacion, pero se me han salido unas paginas desde el principio. Y necesito un reemplazo. Es un libro gordo con mucha informacion valiosa y lo voy a leer por mucho tiempo, pero si se me están saliendo las paginas aunque he comprado la tapa dura para que me dure, no sé si va a resistir. Se supone que la tapa dura tiene que durar.

Espero recibir una pronta respuesta.

Spain on Jun 26, 2023

Vishnu Teja: Must read
File huge blind spots about role of Africa in the Iberian colonial project

India on Jun 20, 2023

Geoff Crocker: There’s much of interest here. It’s an excellent narrative of the interdependencies of the slave trade, for example Portugal’s taking of Angola to feed slaves to its Brazil sugar plantations, and the reasons for this, ie Brazil’s land more fertile for sugar, Angolan slaves less able to flee from captivity in Brazil than local slaves, the Great Dying of Amerindians from European infectious disease massively reducing its slave population etc. Also a fascinating account of the successful rebellion in Haiti, and the story of competing colonial powers. French makes only occasional passing reference to the atrocities of slavery, which are more fully covered by other authors.

The book lacks structure and as a result is frequently repetitive. French’s sentences tend to be excessively ornate. But the main issue is whether French has demonstrated his thesis of Africa’s contribution to the development of modernity. Certainly Africa supplied slave labour, and gold, and slave labour enabled the global plantation economy, generating wealth in Europe, ie the global outcome owes much to African slave labour and raw materials. These however do not define modernity, which emerges...

United Kingdom on Jan 21, 2022

Ian Ross: This is an impeccably researched rebuttal of conventional history of Africa, explaining why the slave trade in particular was the core source of new found wealth in Europe through the establishment of the plantation system in the Americas. He resists a polemic by recognising that the socio-political circumstances of Africa at the time made local rulers complicit in the development of the slave trade, and that slavery was long established in Africa (though in a more benign form) before the Europeans arrived. He also recognises that previous narratives have had to be based on colonial records because little survives in the archives of African experience. The argument is compelling and led me to revise a chapter in my own work on contemporary African history.

This is not a 5 star review only because the constant references to the suffering of slaves diminishes with repetition and ends up fogging the rationale which remains impartial. It reads like a polemic, but is serious piece of work.

United Kingdom on Dec 19, 2021

Petehob: A thorough assembling and exploration of evidence about the origins of western wealth and the birth of modern capitalism based on African slavery on an immense scale. And how this has been consistently underplayed.
It suffers a little from repetition of argumentation but the facts gathered are compelling.

United Kingdom on Dec 18, 2021