1. Old myths : new truths. Africa's place in history
The peopling of a continent
2. Ancient glories. Gift of the Nile
3. The factors of growth. African solutions
4. Tropical achievement. A mature Iron Age
West Africa in the sixteenth century
5. New encounters. North African invasions
6. Towards crisis. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
East Africa : after the Portuguese
Southern Africa : the wars of wandering
7. Conquest and colonial rule. Prelude : the explorers
The system installed : 1900-20
The system at work : 1920-45
8. Towards liberation. The forerunners
