The Fortunes of Africa

A 5000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor

By: Martin Meredith

Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell

Length: 26 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A sweeping history of the fortune seekers, adventurers, despots, and thieves who have ruthlessly endeavored to extract gold, diamonds, and other treasures from Africa and its people.

Africa has been coveted for its rich natural resources ever since the era of the pharaohs. In past centuries, it was the lure of gold, ivory, and slaves that drew merchant-adventurers and conquerors from afar. In modern times, the focus of attention is on oil, diamonds, and other rare earth minerals.

In this vast and vivid panorama of history, Martin Meredith follows the fortunes of Africa over a period of 5,000 years. With compelling narrative, he traces the rise and fall of ancient kingdoms and empires; the spread of Christianity and Islam; the enduring quest for gold and other riches; the exploits of explorers and missionaries; and the impact of European colonization. He examines, too, the fate of modern African states and concludes with a glimpse of their future.

His cast of characters includes religious leaders, mining magnates, warlords, dictators, and many other legendary figures - among them Mansa Musa, ruler of the medieval Mali empire, said to be the richest man the world has ever known. 

©2014 Martin Meredith (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A gripping tale of insatiable greed-personal and collective." (Booklist, starred review)

"[A] broad-ranging history of Africa from the age of the pharaohs to the present, with a solid emphasis on economics...richly detailed...a useful study." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Mr. Meredith artfully weaves together exploration, trade, and geography in a narrative that is both detailed and arresting....[He] leaves the reader bursting with a wealth of facts." (The Economist)

VAST & WELL RESEARCHED

I kept listening and sometimes I repeated chapters just to make sure I heard right.
As an individual who hails from somewhere within the "boundaries of Nigeria" and who has interacted with individuals from other "distinctive appellations within AFRICA", I am pained by the enlightenment this book has bestowed upon me.
It is quite a book and I hope many will dare to turn its covers.
it tells the truth.

Fascinating, though terrible

This audio book was very difficult to understand. Not because it is confusing, but because I lacked even the basic knowledge of Africa's geography and history. The author cites locations, such as cities, regions and even countries that I simply never heard before, so I had to pause and check it out several times. Get at least one map before starting it.

The content is pretty fascinating. It seems like hearing a story about a fictional world, because of the many many completely new history info I never had before. I can't say I will remember names, dates, faces and places, but at least now I have a sense to what I see in the news. At least... Africa isn't just pictures of hungry children and dictators for me anymore.

#historyspoiler
But it is rough to listen. When the author says that Egypt would not be ruled by an Egyptian until the 20th century, things get soured. And it keeps get worse literally until the last paragraph. Be prepared to feel frustrated, angry, humiliated and useless.

Sad when it ended. Truly amazing.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It left me with such a profound sadness at the end, not just that this book was ending, the narrator did an amazing job. Just the history, the hope that came from post colonial rule to where we are now is so utterly depressing. I am very happy to know this all now, do yourself a favor and listen to this, it should be mandatory reading for humanity.

Worthy of your time

Fast moving , would like more depth on tribalism., my only complaint. such rampant corruption it'll make you cry.

Full of information, sometimes disorganized

Great book for someone seeking a better understanding of colonialism, African history, early modern history and modern African instability and corruption.

Author often skips randomly from one topic to another though, which can be at times perplexing and unusual.

Overall though, impressive piece of literature spanning a long period. Happy to have had the fortune to purchase and listen to this.

The narrator is excellent.

Long, long better as a reference

This is a great work, but it’s so long and covers so much ground that I’d prefer it in book form where you can skip around and use as a reference rather than as a listen experience

Good Overview for the Long Period

The book consists of 71 chapters which are organized into Parts I through XVI with between two and seven chapters being allocated to each Part. The parts themselves are unnamed and lack dates or regional designations while the chapters are often obscurely named: Zanj, The Black Guard, The Magnificent Cake, etc. With this deficiency, the author often loses the opportunity to help the reader mentally organize the material about to be described.

One could organize the large book’s content into three main groups:
Early Group: The first two parts (with 9 chapters) cover earliest time in Egypt to the mid-1400s.
Middle Group: The next twelve parts (with 48 chapters) cover earliest European contact in the 1400s until Independence (1940s). This large section is roughly chronological switching between northern, eastern, western, central and southern Africa's affairs.
Later Group: The final two parts (14 chapters) cover Independence and until time of writing.

One can observe that material in periods prior to 300AD is heavily focussed on the north and northeast of Africa – either from cultures with their own/nearby writing systems or cultures in contact with external sources (Roman, Greek) who wrote about them. Material in other parts of Africa is sparse and this is apparently due to the relative scarcity of archaeological research in these pre-literate regions of Africa.

As North Africa become Islamic and literate and traders from those regions started to trade with sub-Saharan regions and regions on coastal East Africa, more parts of Africa start to have available history. Descriptions of sub-Saharan regions are generally told from the point-of-view of literate outsiders who came to trade. This “outsider view” of African history continues with European contact as their ships landed on different parts of the African coast to trade goods and engage in slave trade. Presumably, through much of the period, there is little written material available produced by Africans native to the sub-Sahara.

The historical content becomes broader as the book progresses and there is presumably more source material to reference.

Overall, given the historical materials available to consult, the author does a good job describing the history over this continent over the long period.

just white history in Africa. VERY disappointed.

I would not recommend this book. just about the European misdeeds in Africa
I wanted to learn about Africans.

The perfidy of human nature

One tribe, gang, military elite, or royal family after another fight for power and riches over the vast continent of Africa. The reader seems happy to pronounce all the local language names with such speed and pride that it brings attention to him rather than the text. The story is one of waste, greed and terror, so horrifying it is not a place a gentlewoman would care to visit.

What people don’t know

I thought I had a fair amount of knowledge of Africa, this book enhanced it 10 fold. Very interesting and also frightening. Great performance by the reader. Some of the information in this book you will never forget.