Christianity, of course, is closely associated with European imperialism, but Islam first came to Africa in conflicts with the Middle East around 1000. Nyang's history of the transmission of Islam to various regions of Africa is detailed and lively, by far the best part of the book. Nyang's most serious failing is his tendency to lump all Africans together when discussing "traditional" cosmology; the idea that there is a single African culture is the kind of oversimplification one would hope writers and scholars had abandoned by now.
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