Introduction -- Early prehistory of Africa -- Later prehistory : farming and pastoralism in tropical Africa and ancient Egypt -- The impact of iron in north and west Africa -- The early Iron Age in central, eastern and southern Africa -- North Africa to 1000 CE -- Trans-Saharan trade and the kingdom of ancient Ghana -- Islam and the Sudanic states of west Africa -- Eastern Africa to the sixteenth century -- Later Iron Age states and societies of central and southern Africa to sixteenth century -- Trading towns of the east African coast to the sixteenth century -- The Atlantic slave trade, sixteenth to eighteenth century -- West African states and societies, to the eighteenth century -- North and northeast Africa to the eighteenth century -- Central and eastern Africa to the eighteenth century -- Southern Africa to the eighteenth century

West Africa in the nineteenth century -- The ending of the Atlantic slave trade -- Christian missions, new states and precolonial 'nationalism'-- Central and east Africa in the nineteenth century -- Pre-industrial southern Africa in the nineteenth century -- North and northeast Africa in the nineteenth century -- Christianity and pre-colonial 'nationalism' -- The European 'Scramble', colonial conquest and African resistance in east, north-central and west Africa -- Industrialisation, colonial conquest and African resistance in south-central and southern Africa -- Colonial conquest and African resistance in east, north-central and west Africa -- Industrialisation, colonial conquest and African resistance in south-central and southern Africa -- Consolidation of empire : the early period of colonial rule -- Africa between the wars : the high tide of colonial rule -- The second World War and Africa -- The winning of independence (1) -- The winning of independence (2) -- The winning of independence (3) -- Africa responses to the colonial legacy --The challenges and dilemmas of development: debt and international aid -- Contemporary Africa.