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  • Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent by Dipo Faloyin
    from $18.99

    An exuberant, opinionated, stereotype-busting portrait of contemporary Africa in all its splendid diversity, by one of its leading new writers.

    So often, Africa has been depicted simplistically as a uniform land of famines and safaris, poverty and strife, stripped of all nuance. In this bold and insightful book, Dipo Faloyin offers a much-needed corrective, weaving a vibrant tapestry of stories that bring to life Africa’s rich diversity, communities, and histories.

    Starting with an immersive description of the lively and complex urban life of Lagos, Faloyin unearths surprising truths about many African countries’ colonial heritage and tells the story of the continent’s struggles with democracy through seven dictatorships. With biting wit, he takes on the phenomenon of the white savior complex and brings to light the damage caused by charity campaigns of the past decades, revisiting such cultural touchstones as the KONY 2012 film. Entering into the rivalries that energize the continent, Faloyin engages in the heated debate over which West African country makes the best jollof rice and describes the strange, incongruent beauty of the African Cup of Nations. With an eye toward the future promise of the continent, he explores the youth-led cultural and political movements that are defining and reimagining Africa on their own terms.

    The stories Faloyin shares are by turns joyful and enraging; proud and optimistic for the future even while they unequivocally confront the obstacles systematically set in place by former colonial powers. Brimming with humor and wit, filled with political insights, and, above all, infused with a deep love for the region, Africa Is Not a Country celebrates the energy and particularity of the continent’s different cultures and communities, treating Africa with the respect it deserves.

  • Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction

    edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki &

    $19.99

    *ships in 7 - 10 business days*

    From an award-winning team of editors comes an anthology of thirty-two original stories showcasing the breadth of fantasy and science fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora.

    A group of cabinet ministers query a supercomputer containing the minds of the country’s ancestors. A child robot on a dying planet uncovers signs of fragile new life. A descendent of a rain goddess inherits her grandmother’s ability to change her appearance—and perhaps the world.


    Created in the legacy of the award-winning anthology series Dark Matter, Africa Risen celebrates the vibrancy, diversity, and reach of African and Afro-Diasporic SFF and reaffirms that Africa is not rising—it’s already here.

  • Africa, Amazing Africa: Country by Country 

    by Atinuke

    $19.99

    A Nigerian storyteller explores the continent of Africa country by country: its geography, peoples, animals, history, resources, and cultural diversity. The book is divided into five distinct sections—South, East, West, Central, and North—and each country is showcased on its own bright, energetic page brimming with friendly facts on science, industry, food, sports, music, wildlife, landscape features, even snippets of local languages. The richest king, the tallest sand dunes, and the planet’s largest waterfall all make appearances along with drummers, cocoa growers, inventors, balancing stones, salt lakes, high-tech cities, and nomads who use GPS!

  • AfriCali: Recipes from My Jikoni

    Kiano Moju

    $35.00

    African cuisine is infused with Californian culture to create delicious, unique meals in this beautiful fusion cookbook.

    Kiano Moju was born to a Kenyan mother and a Nigerian father and raised in California. While she spent her summer breaks in Kenya, her home in the states during the school year held African house parties where Nigerian jollof rice, moin moin (steamed bean cakes), roasted chicken legs, and plantains were a common part of life. On weekends and special occasions, they would make Kenyan dishes like samosas, sauteed collard greens, barbecued meat, and other favorites from her childhood including Ethiopian and Eritrean recipes. As Kiano says, “Californian cuisine embraces the flavors of its immigrant communities while celebrating the state’s agriculture and the flavors of fresh produce,” and that’s the concept behind her cooking.

    AfriCali is not a traditional cookbook, but rather one inspired by the delicious meals Kiano has experienced in life. The recipes are unfussy but dedicated to flavor including:

    * Peri Peri Butter
    * Herby Harissa
    * Lentil Nuggets
    * Cherry Tomato Kachumbari
    * Kijani Seafood Pilau
    * Chicken and Okra Wet Fry
    * Berbere Braised Short Ribs
    * Coconut and Cardamom Mandazi
    * Garlic Butter Chapos
    * Pili Pili Pineapple Margarita

    The gorgeous food photography as well as photos from the author’s travels in Africa make this a cookbook like no other. Dive in and enjoy the delicious, unique meals that the whole family will love.

  • African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities

    Mr. Melvin Mitchell

    $25.00

    Melvin Mitchell believes that the 2016 opening of the NMAAHC signals either a black architect renaissance or the demise of the black architect-practitioner corps in the U.S. by 2040 if not earlier…along with the demise of Black America’s cultural, political, and spatial beachheads in America’s big cities. He argues in this book that America’s perennial housing crisis - most acutely manifested in Black America’s accelerating displacement from America’s cities – must be countered by a new progressive 21st century movement that re-invents the revolutionary construction-based architecture modus operandi deployed 100 years ago by Booker T. Washington. Mitchell believes that Washington completed the build-out of the Tuskegee Institute campus as a counter to America’s building of the “White City” aka the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair-Columbian Exposition 600 miles to the north in Chicago, Illinois. Mitchell argues that the centerpiece of a new “architecture” must realign with the needs of Black America for majorincreases in home and business ownership and wealth creation. That requires a massive “Buy the Block”-type redevelopmentin urban Black America. Today that must entail nothing short of the literal building of at least one million newaffordable housing units in urban Black America by Black America between now and 2030. The means to accomplishsuch a moon shot are there in existing and emerging progressive legislation. The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, the Green New Deal, and the Opportunity Zones Act must all beharnessed with the trillions of available public dollars, private equity funds, and black nouveau rich wealth to createand sustain an African American-dominated urban affordable housing industry. That may not be the answer but is mostcertainly one of several heretofore missing pieces.

  • African American Folk Healing

    by Mireille Miller-Young

    $32.20
    Cure a nosebleed by holding a silver quarter on the back of the neck. Treat an earache with sweet oil drops. Wear plant roots to keep from catching colds. Within many African American families, these kinds of practices continue today, woven into the fabric of black culture, often communicated through women. Such folk practices shape the concepts about healing that are diffused throughout African American communities and are expressed in myriad ways, from faith healing to making a mojo.
    Stephanie Y. Mitchem presents a fascinating study of African American healing. She sheds light on a variety of folk practices and traces their development from the time of slavery through the Great Migrations. She explores how they have continued into the present and their relationship with alternative medicines. Through conversations with black Americans, she demonstrates how herbs, charms, and rituals continue folk healing performances. Mitchem shows that these practices are not simply about healing; they are linked to expressions of faith, delineating aspects of a holistic epistemology and pointing to disjunctures between African American views of wellness and illness and those of the culture of institutional medicine.
  • African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision

    by Tamara L. Brown

    Sold out
    African American Fraternities and Sororities: The Legacy and the Vision explores the rich past and bright future of the nine Black Greek-Letter organizations that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council. In the long tradition of African American benevolent and secret societies, intercollegiate African American fraternities and sororities have strong traditions of fostering brotherhood and sisterhood among their members, exerting considerable influence in the African American community, and being on the forefront of civic action, community service, and philanthropy. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, Arthur Ashe, Carol Moseley Braun, Bill Cosby, Sarah Vaughan, George Washington Carver, Hattie McDaniel , and Bobby Rush are among the many trailblazing members of these organizations. The rolls of African American fraternities and sororities serve as a veritable who's who among African American leadership in the United States and abroad. African American Fraternities and Sororities places the history of these organizations in context, linking them to other movements and organizations that predated them and tying their history to one of the most important eras of United States history―the Civil Rights struggle. African American Fraternities and Sororities explores various cultural aspects of these organizations such as auxilliary groups, branding, calls, stepping, and the unique role of African American sororities. It also explores such contemporary issues as sexual aggression and alcohol use, college adjustment, and pledging, and provides a critique of Spike Lee's film School Daze, the only major motion picture to portray African American fraternities and sororities as a central theme. The year 2006 will mark the centennial anniversary of the intercollegiate African American fraternity and sorority movement. Yet, to date, little scholarly attention has been paid to these organizations and the men and women who founded and perpetuated them. African American Fraternities and Sororities reveals the vital social and political functions of these organizations and places them within the history of not only the African American community but the nation as a whole.
  • African American Herbalism: A Practical Guide to Healing Plants and Folk Traditions

    by Lucretia Van Dyke

    Sold out

    Discover the roots of modern-day herbal remedies, plant medicine, holistic rituals, natural recipes, and more that were created by African American herbal healers throughout history.

    This first-of-its-kind herbal guide takes you through the origins of herbal practices rooted in African American tradition—from Ancient Egypt and the African tropics to the Caribbean and the United States. Inside you’ll find the stories of herbal healers like Emma Dupree and Henrietta Jeffries, who made modern American herbalism what it is today. 

    After rediscovering the forgotten legacies of these healers, African American Herbalism dives into the important contributions they made to the world of herbalism, including: 

    • Rituals for sacred bathing and skin care
    • Herbal tinctures, potions, and medicine 
    • Recipes for healing meals and soul food 
    • And more!
    You’ll also find a comprehensive herbal guide to the most commonly used herbs—such as aloe, lavender, sage, sassafras, and more—alongside gorgeous botanical illustrations. African American Herbalism is the perfect guide for anyone wanting to explore the medicinal and healing properties of herbs.
  • African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song Edited

    by Kevin Young

    $45.00
    A literary landmark: the biggest, most ambitious anthology of black poetry ever published, gathering 250 poets from the colonial period to the present.

    Only now, in the 21st century, can we fully grasp the breadth and range of African American poetry: a magnificent chorus of voices, some familiar, others recently rescued from neglect. Here, in this unprecedented anthology expertly selected by poet and scholar Kevin Young, this precious living heritage is revealed in all its power, beauty, and multiplicity.

    Discover, in these pages, how an enslaved person like Phillis Wheatley confronted her legal status in verse and how an antebellum activist like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper voiced her own passionate resistance to slavery. Read nuanced, provocative poetic meditations on identity and self-assertion stretching from Paul Laurence Dunbar to Amiri Baraka to Lucille Clifton and beyond. Experience the transformation of poetic modernism in the works of figures such as Langston Hughes, Fenton Johnson, and Jean Toomer. Understand the threads of poetic history—in movements such as the Harlem and Chicago Renaissances, Black Arts, Cave Canem, Dark Noise Collective—and the complex bonds of solidarity and dialogue among poets across time and place.

    See how these poets have celebrated their African heritage and have connected with other communities in the African Diaspora. Enjoy the varied but distinctly Black music of a tradition that draws deeply from jazz, hip hop, and the rhythms and cadences of the pulpit, the barbershop, and the street. And appreciate, in the anthology’s concluding sections, why contemporary African American poetry, amply recognized in recent National Book Awards and Poet Laureates, is flourishing as never before.
    Taking the measure of the tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song sets a new standard for a genuinely deep engagement with Black poetry and its essential expression of American genius.
  • African American Religion: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
    Sold out

    Since the first African American denomination was established in Philadelphia in 1818, churches have gone beyond their role as spiritual guides in African American communities and have served as civic institutions, spaces for education, and sites for the cultivation of individuality and identities in the face of limited or non-existent freedom.

    In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjure, African American Christianity, and African American Islam. He argues that the phrase "African American religion" is meaningful only insofar as it describes how through religion, African Americans have responded to oppressive conditions including slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, and the pervasive and institutionalized discrimination that exists today. This bold claim frames his interpretation of the historical record of the wide diversity of religious experiences in the African American community. He rejects the common tendency to racialize African American religious experiences as an inherent proclivity towards religiousness and instead focuses on how religious communities and experiences have developed in the African American community and the context in which these developments took place.

    About the Series: Oxford's Very Short Introductions series offers concise and original introductions to a wide range of subjects--from Islam to Sociology, Politics to Classics, Literary Theory to History, and Archaeology to the Bible. Not simply a textbook of definitions, each volume in this series provides trenchant and provocative--yet always balanced and complete--discussions of the central issues in a given discipline or field. EveryVery Short Introduction gives a readable evolution of the subject in question, demonstrating how the subject has developed and how it has influenced society. Eventually, the series will encompass every major academic discipline, offering all students an accessible and abundant reference library. Whatever the area of study that one deems important or appealing, whatever the topic that fascinates the general reader, the Very Short Introductions series has a handy and affordable guide that will likely prove indispensable.

  • African American Religions, 1500-2000

    Sylvester A. Johnson

    $37.00

    This book provides a narrative historical, postcolonial account of African American religions. It examines the intersection of Black religion and colonialism over several centuries to explain the relationship between empire and democratic freedom. Rather than treating freedom and its others (colonialism, slavery, and racism) as opposites, Sylvester A. Johnson interprets multiple periods of Black religious history to discern how Atlantic empires (particularly that of the United States) simultaneously enabled the emergence of particular forms of religious experience and freedom movements as well as disturbing patterns of violent domination. Johnson explains theories of matter and spirit that shaped early indigenous religious movements in Africa, Black political religion responding to the American racial state, the creation of Liberia, and FBI repression of Black religious movements in the twentieth century. By combining historical methods with theoretical analysis, Johnson explains the seeming contradictions that have shaped Black religions in the modern era.

  • African American State Volunteers in the New South: Race, Masculinity, and the Militia in Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, 1871–1906 (Prairie View A&M University Series)

    John Patrick Blair

    $40.00

    In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, a turbulent period fraught with violence, struggle, and uncertainty, a forgotten few African Americans banded together as men to assert their rights as citizens. Following emancipation, the nation’s newest citizens established churches, entered the political arena, created educational and business opportunities, and even formed labor organizations, but it was through state militia service, with the prestige and heightened status conveyed by their affiliation, that they displayed their loyalty, discipline, and more importantly, their manliness within the public sphere.

    In African American State Volunteers in the New South, John Patrick Blair offers a comparative examination of the experiences and activities of African American men as members in the state volunteer military organizations of Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, including the complicated relationships between state government and military officials—many of them former Confederate officers—and the leaders of the Black militia volunteers. This important new study expands understanding of racial accommodation, however minor, toward the African American military, confirmed not only in the actions of state government and military officials to arm, equip, and train these Black troops, but also in the acceptance of clearly visible and authorized military activities by these very same volunteers. In doing so, it adds significant layers to our knowledge of racial politics as they developed during Reconstruction, and prompts us to consider a broader understanding of the history of the South into the twentieth century.

  • African Americans of Galveston

    by Tommie D. Boudreaux

    Sold out

    In the 19th century, Galveston shores were a gateway for immigrants to Texas and destinations beyond. Slaves, the forced immigrants, were brought to Galveston as property for sale. The largest slave trade operation in Galveston was implemented by Jean Laffite, a pirate. His slave trade business began around 1818. However, for the most part, slaves entering the port of Galveston were destined for other Texas cities and other states. Images of America: African Americans of Galveston presents the community life and accomplishments of Galveston slaves, the descendants of slaves, and descendants of those who migrated to Galveston after the Civil War. The book celebrates Galveston's African American culture from the 1840s to the 1960s.

  • African Ancient Origins: Stories Of People & Civilization (Flame Tree Collector's Editions)

    Robin Walker

    $14.99

    Beautiful edition taking the reader through the origins and history of African nations and peoples, highlighting the roots of modern fiction in history, myth and fable.

    Africa is a crucible of many civilizations, indeed of humanity. African peoples can be traced back 16,000 years or so to 5 ancestral civilisational groups based on their language families, such as the Nilo-Saharan and the Khoisan. A brand new, accessible and enlightening history by Robin Walker, African Ancient Origins tells the stories of African golden ages, of the key dynasties, individuals, cities, trade and achievements, going back to the first migrations, origin stories and myths. From the Kingdom of Kerma in Sudan to the Zulu Empire, we learn of the many cultures that existed for thousands of years before European invasion, of their complex histories that have left lasting legacies on modern African nations.

    Flame Tree Collector's Editions present the foundations of speculative fiction: authors, myths, tales and history without which the imaginative literature of the twentieth century would not exist, bringing the best, most influential and most fascinating works into a striking and collectable library. Each book features a new Introduction and a Glossary of Terms or lists of Ancient Leaders.

  • African Art Now: 50 Pioneers Defining African Art for the Twenty-First Century

    by Osei Bonsu

    $55.00

    *Ships in 7-10 Business Days*

    With African artists attracting sizable audience numbers to museums, setting sky-high auction records, and appearing in mainstream press, it has become impossible to overlook the cultural significance of contemporary African art today. Author and curator Osei Bonsu's engaging profiles of leading African artists—along with gorgeous full-color reproductions of their work—introduce readers to a generation of movers and shakers whose innovative artwork reflects on Africa as both an idea and an experience. Using diverse forms, languages, and expressions to articulate what it means to be a part of the world, these artists generate alternate histories and imaginative futures—work that is both personal and political, universal and incredibly specific. Their work helps define contemporary African art as a vast artistic and cultural movement.

    STELLAR ROSTER OF ARTISTS: Amoako Boafo, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Bronwyn Katz—from household names to up-and-coming artists, African Art Now features some of the most exciting artists working today.
    IMPORTANT AND TIMELY: Over the past two decades, contemporary African art has become part of the global mainstream, inspiring countless exhibitions, fairs, and auctions around the world. And yet, African art remains overlooked as an area of dedicated study due to continued academic and cultural bias. This book shines a spotlight on the artists whose wide-ranging accomplishments represent the shifting dynamics and boundless possibilities of African art today.

    Perfect for:

    • Artists, art collectors, art lovers, and museumgoers
    • Educators and students
    • Anyone interested in learning about contemporary African art
  • African Artists: From 1882 to Now

    edited by Phaidon Editors, Joseph L. Underwood, & Chika Okeke-Agulu

    $69.95

    *Ships in 7-10 business days*

    A groundbreaking A-Z survey of the work of over 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in Africa

    Modern and Contemporary African art is at the forefront of the current curatorial and collector movement in today’s art scene. This groundbreaking new book, created in collaboration with a prestigious global advisory board, represents the most substantial appraisal of contemporary artists born or based in Africa available. Features the work of more than 300 artists, including El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, David Goldblatt, Lubaina Himid, William Kentridge, Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, and Robin Rhode, as well as lesser-known names from across Africa, with stunning and surprising examples of their art paired with insightful texts that demonstrate their contribution to the painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image, and performance art.

  • African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa
    from $35.00

    A groundbreaking history that puts early and medieval West Africa in a global context

    Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book, the first on this period of the region’s history in a generation, tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, including Arabic manuscripts, oral histories, and recent archaeological findings, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history more generally. Scholars have long held that such distinctions arose during the colonial period, but Gomez shows they developed much earlier.

    Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces the exchange of ideas and influences with North Africa and the Central Islamic Lands by way of merchants, scholars, and pilgrims. Islam’s growth in West Africa, in tandem with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A major preoccupation was the question of who could be legally enslaved, which together with other factors led to the construction of new ideas about ethnicity, race, gender, and caste―long before colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

    Telling a radically new story about early Africa in global history, African Dominion is set to be the standard work on the subject for many years to come.

  • African Elephant (Young Zoologist): A First Field Guide to the Big-Eared Giant of the Savanna

    by Mireille Miller-Young

    $15.99

    *ships in 7 -10 business days*

    A beautiful first guide to African elephants, part of an exciting new series of animal books.

    Head on safari to the grasslands of Africa to study African elephants in this beautiful nonfiction field guide for kids.

    You might know that African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, but there’s so much more to learn about these tusked creatures. Turn the pages to find out why the grandmother is in charge of an elephant family, and why big ears help elephants cool down! Meet a baby elephant as it takes its first steps, and discover how to tell the difference between an African elephant and an Asian elephant. The book also looks at the conservation challenges these iconic animals face due to climate change and ivory poaching.

  • African Europeans : An Untold History

    by Mireille Miller-Young

    Sold out

     

    Ships in 7-10 business days
    A dazzling history of Africans in Europe, revealing their unacknowledged role in shaping the continent

    Conventional wisdom holds that Africans are only a recent presence in Europe. But in African Europeans, renowned historian Olivette Otele debunks this and uncovers a long history of Europeans of African descent.

    From the third century, when the Egyptian Saint Maurice became the leader of a Roman legion, all the way up to the present, Otele explores encounters between those defined as "Africans" and those called "Europeans." She gives equal attention to the most prominent figures—like Alessandro de Medici, the first duke of Florence thought to have been born to a free African woman in a Roman village—and the untold stories—like the lives of dual-heritage families in Europe's coastal trading towns.
  • African Ghost Short Stories

    by Nuzo Onoh

    $30.00

    Following the hugely successful Black Sci-Fri Short Stories and Asian Ghost Short Stories, comes this deluxe edition of new African writing and tales rooted in ancient culture. This collection explores the deep-seated supernatural element in African storytelling – whether reaching back to the spirits, ancestors and ogres of folklore or the vibrantly modern ghosts of today's African horror. New and contemporary stories complement poignant folktales such as ‘The Story of Takane’ from Lesotho and ‘The Disobedient Daughter Who Married a Skull’ from Nigeria.

    With a foreword by award-winning Nigerian-British writer Nuzo Onoh, an introduction by Prof. Divine Che Neba, and invaluable editorial support from writer and editor Chinelo Onwualu, this latest offering in the Flame Tree Gothic fantasy series delves into the fascinating heritage of African ghostly lore and literature, while allowing it to be reclaimed and retold by contemporary African voices.

    The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

  • African History of Africa, An: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence

    Zeinab Badawi

    $32.50

    Already a major international bestseller, Zeinab Badawi’s sweeping and much-needed survey of African history traces the continent’s extraordinary legacy from prehistory to the present from the African perspective.

    “Equal parts gripping and galvanizing. . . . Researched across more than 30 countries, it brings the dazzling civilizations of pre-colonial Africa vividly to life. A book that feels both long-overdue—and wholly worth the wait.” —British Vogue

    Everyone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone.

    For too long, Africa’s history has been dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, or simply ignored. Now, Zeinab Badawi sets the record straight.

    In this fascinating book, Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history—from the very origins of our species, through ancient civilizations and medieval empires with remarkable queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence. Visiting more than thirty African countries to interview countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, she unearths buried histories from across the continent and gives Africa its rightful place in our global story.

    The result is a gripping new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.

  • African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History

    by Tracey Baptiste

    $19.95
    Heroic full-color portraits illustrate the stories of ten people who helped shape the African continent from ancient times through the tumultuous sixteenth century. In a richly designed work including profiles of rulers, educators, inventors, scholars, and explorers with additional maps and graphics, an award-winning author introduces reader to underrepresented stories of Black history.
  • African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History

    by Tracey Baptiste

    Sold out

    In this expansive collection of history, meet ten real-life kings, queens, inventors, scholars, and visionaries who lived in Africa thousands of years ago and changed the world.

    Black history begins thousands of years ago with the many cultures and people of the African continent. Through portraits of ten heroic figures, bestselling author Tracey Baptiste takes readers on an empowering, energetic journey through time to meet some of the great leaders and thinkers whose vision built nations and shaped the course of history:

    • Menes: Creator of Dynasties
    • Merneith: A Queen Erased
    • Imhotep: From Peasant to God
    • Aesop: The Wisest Man in the Ancient World
    • Hannibal Barca: Unparalleled Military Strategist
    • Terence: North African Playwright
    • Amanirenas: Warrior, Diplomat, Queen
    • Tin Hinan: Founder of a City on the Dunes
    • Mansa Musa: The Richest Man of All Time
    • Queen Idia: Kingmaker

    Illustrator Hillary D. Wilson's brilliant portraits accompany each profile, along with vivid, information-filled landscapes, maps, and graphics for readers to pore over and return to again and again. This rich and thrilling work, which celebrates Black excellence and provides an essential correction to Eurocentric tellings of history, will enthrall readers of all ages.

    “In African Icons, Baptiste engages in the hard work of unveiling the myths about the African continent to young readers . . . This is a great beginner’s guide to pre-colonial Africa.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist  

  • African Print Pocket Notebook - Red Blossom (Ankara)
    $6.00
    Softcover B7 (3.5 x 4.9 inches) Each notebook has 26 double-sided lined pages (52 pages total) Inside pages are printed on high-quality, 90gsm writing paper College ruled pages Print on the front and back Jot down your bright ideas on the go with our vibrant African Print Pocket Notes! These little notebooks are bursting with the bold and beautiful patterns inspired by classic Ankara wax print fabric. Perfectly sized to slip into your pocket or bag, they're ready whenever inspiration strikes. Each notebook is a mini celebration of African design, making note-taking a joyful and stylish affair. Whether you're making lists, doodling dreams, or capturing fleeting thoughts, these pocket notes are your colorful companions. Explore all the designs and let your ideas bloom in style!
  • African Proverbs for All Ages

    by Johnnetta Betsch Cole

    $19.99
    African Proverbs for All Ages is a beautifully-illustrated, engaging picture book about the power of proverbs, how they evolve over time, and the wisdom of various cultures in Africa.
    It has been said that a proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

    Whether you are young or old, proverbs can open your mind to a whole new way of seeing the world. We underestimate children when we assume they are incapable of understanding metaphor and deeper meaning. There are multiple ways that children learn, but for each method by which they learn, they need their imagination engaged and their visual sensibilities ignited. And as adults, we underestimate ourselves when we allow our lives to be about practical matters only. Proverbs can stir our soul and spark our imagination. --Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D. President Emerita of Spelman and Bennett Colleges

    In 
    African Proverbs for All Ages, noted anthropologist and educator Dr. Johnetta Betsch Cole and award-winning illustrator Nelda LaTeef invite children and adults to explore and reflect on complex notions about relationships, identity, society, and the human condition.
  • Africana: More than 100 Recipes and Flavors Inspired by a Rich Continent

    Lerato Umah-Shaylor

    Sold out

    A culinary adventure and celebration of African cooking and cultural diversity, from a pioneering West African food writer, television personality, and cooking teacher.

    Food writer and cook Lerato Umah-Shaylor’s magnificent cookbook is a delicious eating tour of the African continent, introducing vibrant and varied cuisines that are rich in flavor, diverse in culture, and steeped in tradition.

    Lerato adds her own modern twist and inventive style to traditional African dishes that have been passed down and enjoyed for generations, and combines these recipes with personal stories of Africa infused with her delectable sense of adventure.

    With Africana, home cooks can learn how to create some of the most iconic African dishes, from Nigeria to Madagascar and Morocco to South Africa. Here are more than 100 recipes to delight and inspire, such as Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry, Harissa Leg of Lamb with Hibiscus, Senegalese Yassa, Tunisian Tagine, South African Malva Pudding, and the secret to the perfect Jollof.

    A feast for the senses, bursting with flavor, and offering a sense of wanderlust, Africana will bring the magic of the continent to any kitchen.

  • Africanamerican't

    by Ayokunle Falomo

    $16.00

    If the question is America-and by extension, who is and what does it mean to be American? -AFRICANAMERICAN'T offers no answers. The CAN'T in the title suggests impossibility and that is precisely what the book is interested in. Even in the so-called land of opportunity, some things remain impossible for its speaker(s). In a way, AFRICANAMERICAN'T is a document of attempted refusals: assimilation, forgetting, and allegiance to any one country. However valid despair might be as a response to the continued failings of his two countries, Ayokunle Falomo traverses the distance between betrayal and love in an attempt to find poetry-and perhaps, something like hope-in all the places it can't be found.

  • Africans to Spanish America: Expanding the Diaspora (New Black Studies Series)

    Sherwin K. Bryant

    $30.00

    Africans to Spanish America expands the Diaspora framework that has shaped much of the recent scholarship on Africans in the Americas to include Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Cuba, exploring the connections and disjunctures between colonial Latin America and the African Diaspora in the Spanish empires. While a majority of the research on the colonial Diaspora focuses on the Caribbean and Brazil, analysis of the regions of Mexico and the Andes opens up new questions of community formation that incorporated Spanish legal strategies in secular and ecclesiastical institutions as well as articulations of multiple African identities. Editors Sherwin K. Bryant, Rachel Sarah O'Toole, and Ben Vinson III arrange the volume around three themes: identity construction in the Americas; the struggle by enslaved and free people to present themselves as civilized, Christian, and resistant to slavery; and issues of cultural exclusion and inclusion. Across these broad themes, contributors offer probing and detailed studies of the place and roles of people of African descent in the complex realities of colonial Spanish America.

    Contributors are Joan C. Bristol, Nancy E. van Deusen, Leo J. Garofalo, Herbert S. Klein, Charles Beatty-Medina, Karen Y. Morrison, Rachel Sarah O'Toole, Frank "Trey" Proctor III, and Michele Reid-Vazquez.

  • Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from Soul Train to Wall Street

    George E Johnson

    $30.00

    From the creator of the iconic hair product, Afro Sheen, and the first Black company to be traded on Wall Street comes the story of multi-millionaire George E. Johnson

    You might already be familiar with Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen, but have you heard of the man behind the company that produced those products? George Ellis Johnson the acclaimed self-made businessman—along with Hilary Beard—reveals his inspiring and captivating rise from humble beginnings to the top of the haircare industry.

    At just 27 years old, Johnson created the Johnson Products Company. After years of hard work, traveling the country and going from barbershop to barbershop to sell his products, JPC became the first Black-owned company to trade on a major stock exchange, the financial sponsor of Soul Train, and once considered the largest Black-owned manufacturing company in the world. At the height of its success, JPC was worth $37M. In this coming-of-age story, Johnson uses the life skills and strong character built from working odd jobs as a teenager and practicing the golden rule to create a business that would both nurture and advance the Black community. Without a formal education, he filled a gap in the Black haircare industry and created a high-quality formula for straightening hair and the iconic Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen products that supported Black people in expressing their authentic beauty.

    For decades, Johnson has been an inspiration to Black entrepreneurs, setting an example of Black wealth and providing a safe space for Black people to work. 

    Afro Sheen is a timely, impassioned look at both an industry and cultural moment; Johnson’s impact is finally on full display, as he brilliantly highlights how having perseverance and a daring vision can create both change and a lasting legacy.

  • Afro Unicorn: A Magical Parade (Step into Reading)

    by April Showers

    $5.99

    The Afro Unicorns are on parade! Magical, Unique, and Divine celebrate inclusivity and friendship as they bring all the Afro Unicorns together to celebrate the annual Festival of Crowns.

    The Festival of Crowns is one of the biggest gatherings of the year in Afronia, and everyone is excited to march in the big parade to celebrate.

    But when a last-minute problem puts the parade in jeopardy, the three best friends work together to find a solution.

    When Afro Unicorn creator April Showers realized that her favorite emoji—the unicorn!—was only available in white, she was inspired to create a more inclusive brand for children of color to celebrate how magical, unique, and divine they truly are.

    Don’t miss the other books in the Afro Unicorn series—
    The Most Magical Time of the Year!
    Divine Makes a Splash
    We Are Afro Unicorns
    You Are a Unicorn!
    A Magical Day

    Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired picture clues help children decode the story.

  • Afro Unicorn: Afronia Academy, Vol. 2 (Volume 2)

    April Showers & Anthony Conley & Ronaldo Barata & Terrance Crawford

    $12.99

    The Afro Unicorns know they need to BELIEVE in themselves in order to SUCCEED! But when Unique and Divine enroll at a new school called Afronia Academy and meet an artsy student named Dreama, their confidence will be put to the test— that is, if their teachers don't do it first. This beautifully illustrated graphic novel celebrates joy, beauty, and of course, unicorns!

    Divine and Unique are attending a new magical school called Afronia Academy. It’s a very hard school to get into, and Superior Majestic reminds them that they were chosen to attend because they are kind, fair, smart, and believe in themselves. There, the Afro Unicorns meet a student named Dreama. Dreama seems like she's always distracted, but why? Unique and Divine have got to find out!

    This full-color graphic novel is great for young readers beginning their graphic novel journey and graphic novel enthusiasts alike. It also features a Dyslexia-friendly font. Dreama uses a few words in Spanish, with a pronunciation guide and Spanish language glossary in the back to help kids navigate new text. Dreama is bilingual, and readers will enjoy learning phrases with her.

    When Afro Unicorn creator April Showers realized that her favorite emoji—the unicorn!—was only available in white, she was inspired to create a more inclusive brand for children of color to celebrate how magical, unique, and divine they truly are.

    "The brand, created by author Showers, has a cultural resonance that cannot be understated, and young readers will see important aspects of Black beauty and empowerment reflected in the characterization and storytelling of the Afro Unicorns. . . this appealing unicorn book has a significant underpinning of inclusivity." - School Library Journal for Afro Unicorn: The Land of Afronia (vol. 1)

  • Afro Unicorn: The Land of Afronia, Vol. 1

    by April Showers, Anthony Conley, Ronaldo Barata, and Terrance Crawford

    $12.99

    Afronia is known for being bright and colorful, but what happens when a disgraced unicorn wants to take the color away? Join unicorn best friends Divine and Unique as they journey to save Afronia in this all-new, action-packed graphic novel that celebrates Black joy and beauty. 

    Welcome to the mystical land of Afronia, where life is good and full of color. The Afro Unicorns can't wait to celebrate the annual Festival of Crowns. But on the way to the festival, Divine and Unique come across Castle Monotonic, which is home to the mysterious Madame Imperious who wants to drain all the color from Afronia. Madame Imperious has already started draining the color from a young Afrosaurus. It's up to Unique and Divine to save Afronia and the Afrosaurus. Otherwise, their magical land might be doomed . . . FOREVER!

    This full-color graphic novel is great for young readers beginning their graphic novel journey and graphic novel enthusiasts alike. It also features a Dyslexia-friendly font.

    When Afro Unicorn creator April Showers realized that her favorite emoji—the unicorn!—was only available in white, she was inspired to create a more inclusive brand for children of color to celebrate how magical, unique, and divine they truly are.

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