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I liked this book for two reasons. First, I liked how the writing was organized. There were only five chapters in this book: an introduction, one chapter for each empire, and a conclusion. The three empires were Ghana, Mali, and Songhay and then there were subheadings within each of the empire chapters. It helped to turn the details into a story. Second, I liked that the book included illustrations and maps to enhance the text. A current map of Africa is not an accurate representation of what it was like in the seventh century so it was nice to have one that fit that time period. Also, the culture is very different from what most of us can picture in our heads, so it was wonderful to have an illustration of what the researchers think a trading center would look like in Africa at that time or even a battle. The main message of this story is that Africa does have a history that is often forgotten because of what Americans have done to that history with the slave trade. Long before that, it was a bustling area of wealth with a surplus of gold and salt. ( )

When I was growing up, Africa wasn't much mentioned in history class save for when we studied about European and Americans messing around there. That's one thing we were able to change in our kids' education. After all, every place has its own history, even if it doesn't play a significant role in the history of our hometown. This book takes a look at three empires in Western Africa from the years A.D. 700 to the early 1600's. It looks at the politics and a bit of the culture. It's not a long book, but well worth checking out for a small slice of history. After all, West Africa is where many of America's slaves were taken from, so I have to wonder what unknown influence that history may have had upon our own.
--J. ( )