Innovative study of the relations of the peoples of West Africa in the precolonial period. Covering a period of some 400 to 500 years up to the last decades of the nineteenth century, the author takes a wide range of examples from those societies whose levels of political organisation warrant the term 'states'. The arrangements for the exercise of power within these varied from states where one man or an oligarchy made decisions about war and peace to states where power was diffused between members of the community. North America: University of Wisconsin Press
Reviews
This book...makes the link between war and diplomacy which is the stuff of much European history. There are lots of works of scholarship on such subjects as slavery but this subject had been missed in African history except by Professor Smith. -- Michael Crowder



Book Information
ISBN 9780852550328
Author Robert S. Smith
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint James Currey
Publisher James Currey