General History of Africa

The General History of Africa is a two-phase project launched by UNESCO in 1964, producing a volume history of Africa first published in 1981 up to the present.
The 1964 General Conference of UNESCO, during its 13th Session, instructed the Organization to undertake this initiative after the newly independent African member states expressed a strong desire to reclaim their cultural identity, to rectify widespread ignorance about their continent's history, and to break free of discriminatory prejudices.
Phase One, which began in 1964 and was completed in 1999, consisted of writing and publishing volumes 18 which highlight the shared heritage of the peoples of Africa.
Phase Two, which began in 2009, focuses on the elaboration of history curricula and pedagogical materials for primary and secondary schools on the basis of the eight volumes of the GHA. Phase Two also focuses on the promotion of the use and harmonization of the teaching of this collection in higher education institutions throughout the continent. Phase Two also concerns the implementation of these materials in schools in Africa and the diaspora. Volumes 9 and 10 were released in 2025.
The objective of both Phase One and Phase Two of the project is to re-appropriate the interpretation and writing of African histories and to demonstrate the contribution of African cultures past and present to the history of humanity at large.

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Volumes and contributors

Editors are shown by ', and assistant editors by '.

Volume 1: ''Methodology and African Historiography'' (1981)

Internet Archive link

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
-	General Introduction	Joseph Ki-Zerbo '
1	The development of African historiography	John Donnelly Fage
2	The place of history in African society	Boubou Hama and Joseph Ki-Zerbo
3	Recent trends in African historiography and their contribution to history in general	Philip Dearmond Curtin
4	Sources and specific techniques used in African history: general outline	Théophile Obenga
5	Written sources before the fifteenth century	Hichem Djait
6	Written sources from the fifteenth century onwards
7	Oral tradition and its methodology	Jan Vansina
8	The living tradition	Amadou Hampâté Bâ
9	African archeology and its techniques including dating techniques	Zaky Iskander
10	History and linguistics	Pathé Diagne
-	Editorial Note: Theories on the 'races' and history of Africa	Joseph Ki-Zerbo '
11	Migrations and ethnic and linguistic differentiations
12	African linguistic classification	Joseph Harold Greenberg
-	Appendix to Chapter 12: The language map of Africa	David Dalby
13	Historical geography: physical aspects	Sékouba Diarra
14	Historical geography: economic aspects	Akin Ladipo Mabogunje
15	The interdisciplinary methods adopted in this study	Joseph Ki-Zerbo '
16	Chronological framework: African pluvial and glacial epochs	Rushdi Said and Hugues Faure
17	Homonization: General problems	Yves Coppens and
18	African fossil man	Richard Leakey
19	The prehistory of East Africa	John Edward Giles Sutton
20	The prehistory of Southern Africa	John Desmond Clark
21	The prehistory of Central Africa	Roger de Bayle des Hermens and Francis Van Noten with Pierre de Maret, Jan Moeyersons, K. Muya and Emile Roche
22	The prehistory of North Africa
23	The prehistory of the Sahara	Henri Jean Hougot
24	The prehistory of West Africa	Charles Thurstan Shaw
25	The prehistory of the Nile Valley	Fernand Debono
26	African prehistoric art	Joseph Ki-Zerbo '
27	The origins, development and expansion of agricultural techniques	and
28	Discovery and diffusion of metals and the development of social systems until the fifth century before the Christian era	Jean Vercoutter
-	Conclusion: From nature in the raw to liberated humanity	Joseph Ki-Zerbo

Volume 2: ''Ancient Civilizations of Africa'' (1981)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
-	Introduction	Gamal Eddin Mokhtar with Jean Vercoutter
1	[Ancient Egyptian language\|Egyptian race controversy\|Origin of the Ancient Egyptians]	Cheikh Anta Diop
-	Annex to Chapter 1: Report on the symposium on 'The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script'
2	Pharaonic Egypt	Abdel Moneim Abu Bakr
3	Pharaonic Egypt: society, economy and culture	Jean Yoyotte
4	Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa	Abd el Hamid Zayid with
5	The legacy of Pharaonic Egypt	Rashid El Nadoury with Jean Vercoutter
6	Egypt in the Hellenistic era	Henry Riad with
7	Egypt under Roman domination	Sergio Donadoni
8	The importance of Nubia: a link between Central Africa and the Mediterranean	S. Adam with Jean Vercoutter
9	Nubia before Napata	Negm-el-Din Mohammed Sherif
10	The Empire of Kush: Napata and Meroë	Jean Leclant
11	The civilization of Napata and Meroë	Ahmed Ali Hakem with and Jean Vercoutter
12	The spreading of Christianity in Nubia	Kazimierz Michałowski
13	Pre-Axumite culture	H. de Contension
14	The civilization of Axum from the first to the seventh century
15	Axum: political system, economics and culture, first to fourth century	Yuri Mikhailovich Kobishanov
16	Christian Axum	Tekle Tsadik Mekouria
17	The proto-Berbers	Jehan Desanges
18	The Carthaginian period	Brian Herbert Warmington
19	The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa	and Pierre Salama
20	The Sahara in classical antiquity	Pierre Salama
21	Introduction to the later prehistory of Sub-Saharan Africa	Merrick Posnansky
22	The East African coast and its role in maritime trade	Abdul Sheriff
23	East Africa before the seventh century	John Edward Giles Sutton
24	West Africa before the seventh century	Bassey Wai-Andah
25	Central Africa	Francis Van Noten with Daniel Cahen and Pierre de Maret
26	Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers	John Parkington
27	The beginnings of the Iron Age in Southern Africa	David Walter Phillipson
28	Madagascar
29	The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age	Merrick Posnansky
-	Conclusion	Gamal Eddin Mokhtar

Volume 3: ''Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century'' (1988)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
1	Africa in the context of world history	'
2	The coming of Islam and the expansion of the Muslim empire	Muhammad al-Fasi ' and '
3	Stages in the development of Islam and its dissemination in Africa	Muhammad al-Fasi ' and '
4	Islam as a social system in Africa since the seventh century	Zakari Dramani-Issifou
5	The peoples of the Sudan: Population movements	Francois de Medeiros
6	The Bantu-speaking peoples and their expansion	Samwiri Lwanga-Lunyiigo and Jan Vansina
7	Egypt from the Arab conquest until the end of the Fatimid state	Thierry Bianquis
8	Christian Nubia at the height of its civilization	Stefan Jakobielski
9	The conquest of North Africa and the Berber resistance	H. Mones
10	The independence of the Maghrib	Mohamed Talbi
11	The role of the Sahara and Saharians in relationships between North and South	Tadeusz Lewicki
12	The emergence of the Fatimids	'
13	The Almovarids	and
14	Trade and trade routes in West Africa
15	The Chad region as a crossroads	and Bawuro Barkindo
16	The Guinea zone: General situation	Thurston Shaw
17	The Guinean belt: The peoples between Mount Cameroon and the Ivory Coast	Bassey Wai Andah with James Anquandah
18	The peoples of Upper Guinea	Bassey Wai Andah
19	The Horn of Africa	Tekle-Tsadik Mekouria
20	Ethiopia's relations with the Muslim world	Enrico Cerulli
21	The East African coast and the Comoro Islands	Fidelis T. Masao and Henry W. Mutoro
22	The East African interior	Christopher Ehret
23	Central Africa to the north of the Zambezi	David Walter Phillipson
24	Southern Africa to the south of the Zambezi	Thomas N. Huffman
25	Madagascar	Madame Bakoly Domenichini-Ramiaramanana
26	The African diaspora in Asia	Yusof Talib with F. El-Samir
27	Relations between different regions of Africa	Abdoulaye Bathily with Claude Meillassoux
28	Africa from the seventh to the eleventh century: Five formative centuries	and Jan Vansina

Volume 4: ''Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'' (1984)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
1	Introduction	Djibril Tamsir Niane '
2	The unification of the Maghreb under the Alhomads	O. Saidi
3	The spread of civilization in the Maghreb and its impact on Western civilization	Mohamed Talbi
4	The disintegration of the political unity of the Maghreb
5	Society in the Maghrib after the disappearance of the Alhomads	R. Idris
6	Mali and the second Mandingo expansion	Djibril Tamsir Niane '
7	The decline of the Mali empire	Madina Ly-Tall
8	The Songhay from the 12th to the 16th century
9	The peoples and kingdoms of the Niger Bend and the Volta basin from the 12th to 16th century
10	The kingdoms and peoples of Chad
11	The Hausa and their neighbours in central Sudan	Mahdi Adamu with André Salifou
12	The coastal peoples: From Casamance to the Ivory Coast lagoons	Yves Person
13	From the Ivory Coast lagoons to the Volta	Pierre Kipré
14	From the Volta to the Cameroon	Alan Frederick Charles Ryder
15	Egypt and the Muslim world
16	Nubia from the late 12th century to the Funj conquest in the early 15th century
17	The Horn of Africa: The Solomonids in Ethiopia and the states of the Horn of Africa	Taddesse Tamrat
18	The development of Swahili civilization	Victor V. Matveiev
19	Between the coast and the great lakes	Christopher Ehret
20	The Great Lakes region	Bethwell Allan Ogot
21	The Zambezi and Limpopo basins: 1100–1500	Brian Murray Fagan
22	Equatorial Africa and Angola: Migrations and the emergence of the first states	Jan Vansina
23	Southern Africa: Its peoples and social structures	Leonard Diniso Ngcongco with Jan Vansina
24	Madagascar and the neighbouring islands from the 12th to the 16th century	Faranirina Esoavelomandroso
25	Relationships and exchanges among the different groups	Djibril Tamsir Niane '
26	Africa in inter-continental relations	with S. Labib
27	Conclusion	Djibril Tamsir Niane '

Volume 5: ''Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century'' (1992)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
1	The struggle for international trade and its implications for Africa	Marian Małowist
2	African political, economic and social structures during this period	Pathé Diagne
3	Population movements and the emergence of new social-political forms in Africa	Jan Vansina
4	Africa in world history: the export slave trade from Africa and the emergence of an Atlantic economic order	Joseph E. Inikori
5	The African diaspora in the old and new worlds	Joseph E. Harris
6	The Ottoman conquest of Egypt
7	The Sudan, 1500–1800	Yusuf Fadl Hasan and Bethwell Allan Ogot '
8	Morocco	Mohammad El Fasi
9	Algeria, Tunisia and Libya: The Ottomans and their heirs	Mohamed Hédi Chérif
10	Senegambia from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century: evolution of the Wolof, Sereer and Tukuloor	Boubacar Barry
11	The end of the Songhay empire	Michel Abitbol
12	From the Niger to the Volta	and Joseph Ki-Zerbo
13	The states and cultures of the Upper Guinea coast	Christophe Wondji
14	The states and cultures of the Lower Guinea coast	Albert Adu Boahen
15	Fon and Yoruba: the Niger delta and Cameroon	Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa
16	The Hausa states	Diouldé Laya
17	Kanem-Borno: its relations with the Mediterranean sea, Bagirmi and other states in the Chad basin	Bawuro M. Barkindo
18	From the Cameroon grasslands to the Upper Nile
19	The Kongo kingdom and its neighbours	Jan Vansina based on a contribution by Theophile Obenga
20	The political system of the Luba and Lunda: its emergence and expansion	Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem
21	The northern Zambezia-Lake Malawi region	Kings Mbacazwa Phiri, Owen J. M. Kalinga and Hoyini H. K. Bhila
22	Southern Zambezia	Hoyini H. K. Bhila
23	Southern Africa	Donald Denoon
24	The Horn of Africa
25	East Africa: The coast	Ahmed Idha Salim
26	The Great Lakes region: 1500–1800	James Bertin Webster, Bethwell Allan Ogot ' and
27	The interior of East Africa: The peoples of Kenya and Tanzania, 1500–1800	William Robert Ochieng
28	Madagascar and the islands of the Indian Ocean	Raymond K. Kent
29	The historical development of African societies, 1500–1800: Conclusion	Bethwell Allan Ogot

Volume 6: ''Africa from the Nineteenth century until the 1880s'' (1989)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
1	Africa at the beginning of the nineteenth century: Issues and prospects	Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi '
2	Africa and the world economy	Immanuel Wallerstein
3	New trends and processes in Africa in the nineteenth century	Albert Adu Boahen
4	The abolition of the slave trade
5	The Mfecane and the rise of the new African states	Leonard Diniso Ngcongco
6	The impact of Mfecane on the Cape colony	Elleck Kufakunesu Mashingaidze
7	The British, Boers and Africans in South Africa, 1850–80	Ngwabi Mulunge Bhebe
8	The countries of the Zambezi basin	Allen F. Isaacman
9	The East African coast and hinterland, 1800–45	Ahmed Idha Salim
10	The East African coast and hinterland, 1845–80	Isaria Ndelahiyosa Kimambo
11	Peoples and states of the Great Lakes region	David William Cohen
12	The Congo basin and Angola	Jean-Luc Vellut
13	The renaissance of Egypt, 1805–81	Anouar Abdel-Malek
14	The Sudan in the nineteenth century	H. A. Ibrahim with Bethwell Allan Ogot
15	Ethiopia and Somalia	Richard Pankhurst with Lee V. Cassanelli
16	Madagascar 1800–80	Phares Mukasa Mutibwa with Faranirina V. Esoavelomandroso
17	New trends in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia and Libya	Mohamed Hédi Chérif
18	Morocco from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 1880	Abdallah Laroui
19	New patterns of European intervention in the Maghreb	Nikolay A. Ivanov
20	The Sahara in the nineteenth century	Stephen Baier
21	The nineteenth-century Islamic revolutions in West Africa	Aziz A. Batran
22	The Sokoto caliphate and Borno	Murray Last
23	Massina and Torodbe empire until 1878	Madina Ly-Tall
24	States and peoples of Senegambia and Upper Guinea	Y. Person
25	States and peoples of the Niger Bend and the Volta	Kwame Arhin and Joseph Ki-Zerbo
26	Dahomy, Yorubaland, Borgu and Benin in the nineteenth century	Anthony Ijaola Asiwaju
27	The Niger delta and the Cameroon region	Ebiegberi Joe Alagoa with Lovett Zephaniah Elango and Nicolas Metegue N'nah
28	The African diaspora	Franklin W. Knight with Yusof Talib and Philip D. Curtin
29	Conclusion: Africa on the eve of the European conquest	Jacob Festus Adeniyi Ajayi '

Volume 7: ''Africa under colonial domination, 1880–1935'' (1985)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
1	Africa and the colonial challenge	Albert Adu Boahen '
2	European partition and conquest of Africa: An overview	Godfrey Nwanoruo Uzoigwe
3	African initiatives and resistance in the face of partition and conquest	Terence Osborn Ranger
4	African initiatives and resistance in North-East Africa	H. A. Ibrahim with Abbas I. Ali
5	African initiatives and resistance in North Africa and the Sahara	Abdallah Laroui
6	African initiatives and resistance in West Africa, 1880–1914	M'Baye Gueye and Albert Adu Boahen '
7	African initiatives and resistance in East Africa, 1880–1914	Henry A. Mwanzi
8	African initiatives and resistance in Central Africa, 1880–1914	Allen F. Isaacman and Jan Vansina
9	African initiatives and resistance in Southern Africa	David Chanaiwa
10	Madagascar, 1880s–1930s: African initiatives and reaction to colonial conquest and domination	M. Esoavelomandroso
11	Liberia and Ethiopia, 1880–1914: The survival of two African states	M. B. Akpan with A. B. Jones and Richard Pankhurst
12	The First World War and its consequences	Michael Crowder
13	Methods and institutions of European domination	R. F. Betts with Anthony Ijaola Asiwaju
14	The colonial economy	Walter Rodney
15	The colonial economy of the former French, Belgian and Portuguese zones, 1914–35	Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch
16	The colonial economy: The former British zones	Martin H. Y. Kaniki
17	The colonial economy: North Africa	Ahmed Kassab, A. A. Abdussalam and F. S. Abusedra
18	The social repercussions of colonial rule: Demographic aspects	John Charles Caldwell
19	The social repercussions of colonial rule: The new social structures	Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo
20	Religion in Africa during the colonial era	Kofi Asare Opoku
21	The arts in Africa during the period of colonial rule	Wole Soyinka
22	African politics and nationalism, 1919–35	B. Olatunji Oloruntimehin
23	Politics and nationalism in North-East Africa, 1919–35	H. A. Ibrahim
24	Politics and nationalism in the Maghrib and the Sahara, 1919–35	Jacques Berque
25	Politics and nationalism in West Africa, 1919–35	Albert Adu Boahen '
26	Politics and nationalism in East Africa, 1919–35	Eisha Stephen Atieno Odhiambo
27	Politics and nationalism in Central and Southern Africa, 1919–35	Apollon Borisovich Davidson, Allen Isaacman and R. Pélissier
28	Ethiopia and Liberia, 1914–35: Two independent African states in the colonial era	M. B. Akpan with A. B. Jones and Richard Pankhurst
29	Africa and the New World	R. D. Ralston with Fernando Augusto Albuquerque Mourão
30	Colonialism in Africa: Its impact and significance	Albert Adu Boahen '
-	-	Y. Kwarteng

Volume 8: ''Africa since 1935'' (1993)

Chapter No.	Chapter Title	Author
1	Introduction	Ali Al'amin Mazrui '
2	The Horn and North Africa, 1935–45: Crises and change	Tayeb Chenntouf
3	Tropical and equatorial Africa under French, Portuguese and Spanish domination, 1935–45	Majhemout Diop with David Birmingham,, and Djibril Tamsir Niane
4	Africa under British and Belgium domination, 1935–45	Michael Crowder
5	Seek ye first the political kingdom	Ali Al'amin Mazrui '
6	North Africa and the Horn
7	West Africa, 1945–60	Jean Suret-Canale and Albert Adu Boahen
8	Equatorial West Africa
9	The struggle for political sovereignty in Eastern Africa, 1945 to independence	Michael Twaddle with and Isaria Ndelahiyosa Kimambo
10	Southern Africa since 1945	David Chanaiwa
11	Economic changes in Africa in the world context	Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch
12	Agriculture and rural development since 1935	Maxwell Owusu
13	Industrial development and urban growth, 1935–80	Pierre Kipré
14	Comparative strategies of economic decolonization in Africa	Adebayo Adedeji
15	Nation-building and changing political structures	Jonah Isawa Elaigwu with Ali Al'amin Mazrui
16	Nation-building and changing political values	Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ali Al'amin Mazrui and Christophe Wondji with Albert Adu Boahen
17	Religion and social evolution	Tshishiku Tshibangu with Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi and Lemin Sanneh
18	Language and social change	and Mohamed Hassan Abdulaziz
19	The development of modern literature since 1935	Ali Al'amin Mazrui ' with Mario de Andrade, M'hamed Alaoui Abdalaoui, Daniel P. Kunene and Jan Vansina
20	Arts and society since 1935	Jan Vansina
21	Trends in philosophy and science in Africa	Ali Al'amin Mazrui ' and Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi with Albert Adu Boahen and Tshishiku Tshibangu
22	Education and social change	Aklilu Habte and Teshome Wagaw with Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi
23	Africa and its diaspora since 1935	Joseph E. Harris with Slimane Zeghidour
24	Pan-Africanism and regional integration	Samuel Kingsley Botwe Asante with David Chanaiwa
25	Pan-Africanism and Liberation	Edem Kodjo and David Chanaiwa
26	Africa and the capitalist countries	Chinweizu
27	Africa and the socialist countries	Iba Der Thiam and James Mulira with Christophe Wondji
28	Africa and the developing regions	Locksley Edmonson
29	Africa and the United Nations since 1945	Edmund Kwam Kouassi
30	Toward the year 2000	Ali Al'amin Mazrui

Volume 11 (TBC 2022–2029)

Source:
This volume will " contemporary challenges for Africa and its diasporas around the world".Section 1 - Exploring the concept of "Global Africa".Section 2 - The current situation of "gloablized Africans" on the continent and beyond the continent.Section 3 - How Africa is "participating in the challenges of the contemporary world".

History

The project encompasses two of UNESCO's key priorities – Africa and Education. Africa, in terms of a response to urgent development needs at the national level and to accompany the regional integration process; and education because this issue is a fundamental human right and the very basis of development and responsible citizenry. African peoples expressed their desire to "decolonize" the history of their Continent to deconstruct the traditional prejudices and clarify the truth of the African past. The project also takes into consideration modern teaching tools, such as internet resources and multimedia platforms, to ensure that learning is an interactive discovery process. Africa was never cut off from the rest of the world, and benefitted from mutual exchange and influences with Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. The slave trade, slavery, and colonization had a considerable impact on the fragmentation of the Continent. The African Diaspora that resulted contributed in a significant manner to the creation of new cultures and societies. The Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa aims to develop curriculum that highlights the African contribution to the progress of Humanity, African shared values, interaction with the rest of the world.
In this perspective, the creation of the African Union and the implementation of the NEPAD philosophy of developing Africa-led solutions to African challenges offered a new and favorable context for a political leadership committed to African regional integration and provided a mechanism for addressing history teaching within the continent as a whole. Furthermore, the Action Plan of the Second Decade for Education in Africa, which emphasizes the strengthening of the links between education and culture and improving the quality of pedagogical content, constitutes an ideal framework for the implementation of the project.
Article 7 of the Charter of African Cultural Renaissance adopted in 2006 in Khartoum at the Heads of State Summit stipulates that

Phase One

Phase One was 1964–1999.
Following their decolonization in the early 1960s, African countries expressed a strong desire to recover their ownership of their past and the production of knowledge regarding their heritage. The African member states of UNESCO were then called upon to re-affirm their cultural identities and reinforce the common aspiration to achieve African unity. Part of these efforts included combating certain preconceptions including the assumption that the lack of written sources made it difficult to engage in serious study or production of African history. The conventional reading of history also needed to be challenged to depict a more accurate picture of the African continent, of its cultural diversity, and its contribution to the general progress of humankind. Thus, at its 16th Session, the General Conference of UNESCO invited the Director-General to undertake the elaboration of a General History of Africa. In this framework, the General History of Africa was written and published in eight volumes, with a main edition in English, French and Arabic. Additional publications have been produced in Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. Furthermore, twelve studies and documents on related themes as well as an abridged version of the main edition in English, French, Kiswahili, Hausa and Fulfulde were published. This tremendous undertaking represented thirty five years of cooperation between three hundred and fifty experts from Africa and from the rest of the world. This work involved some of the most eminent African scholars such as Cheikh Anta Diop, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Theophile Obenga, Ali Mazrui, Gamal Mokhtar, Bethwell A. Ogot, etc. It also included non-African experts, such as Jan Vansina, and Philip Curtin.
The main preoccupation of Phase 1 was to provide a culturally relevant perspective based on an interdisciplinary approach with a focus on the history of ideas and civilizations, societies and institutions. To that end, it was envisaged to develop an African centered point of view using African sources, such as oral traditions, art forms and linguistics. It was decided as well to adopt a continental perspective of Africa as a whole avoiding the usual dichotomy between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. This shift in perspective is reflected by the significant number of renowned African scholars who contributed to this project as members of the International Scientific Committee, editors and authors.
To tackle this task, made all the more complex and difficult by the vast range of sources and the fact that documents were widely scattered, UNESCO had to proceed in stages. The first stages consisted of gathering documentation and planning the work. Several meetings were held and campaigns were conducted in the field to collect oral traditions and establish regional documentation centers. In addition, several activities were undertaken: including the collection of unpublished manuscripts in Arabic and Ajami, the compilation of archival inventories and the preparation of a Guide to the Sources of the History of Africa, culled from the archives and libraries of a number of European and Asian countries and later published in nine volumes.
The second stage was devoted to the deliberation of complex substantial and methodological questions raised by the compilation of the GHA. It was decided that the GHA should cover three million years of African history, in eight volumes, published in English, Arabic, French, and in African languages such as Kiswahili, Hausa, and Fulfulde.
The next stage consisted of the drafting and publication. This began with the establishment of the International Scientific Committee to ensure the intellectual and scientific responsibility of the work and oversee the drafting and publication of the volumes. During this period, UNESCO organized scientific colloquia and symposia on topics related to the history of Africa most of which were overlooked by researchers. The results of these meetings were published in a series of books entitled "UNESCO Studies and Documents -The General History of Africa". Twelve studies were published covering a wide range of subjects including: the Slave trade, relations between Africa and the Arab world, relations between Africa and the Indian Ocean, and the role of youth and women.
Bearing in mind that history teaching is instrumental in shaping peoples’ identities and in understanding the common ties underlying the cultural diversity in any region, and in order to implement one of the goals initially set for the General History of Africa by its initiators, UNESCO, in collaboration with the African Union Commission, launched in March 2009, Phase II of GHA entitled the "Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa" project.

Phase Two

In 2009 UNESCO launched the second phase of the project focusing on the implementation of the GHA entitled, the "Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa." This phase, which constitutes a priority in the cooperation between UNESCO and the African Union, falls within the framework of the Action Plan of the Second Decade for Education in Africa. The Action Plan emphasizes the strengthening of the links between education and culture and improving the quality of pedagogical contents such as internet resources and audiovisual materials. It further corresponds to recommendations made following several meetings organized by UNESCO before and after the completion of the first phase of the GHA.
To successfully implement the second phase of the project, UNESCO has had to have the project validated by different African institutional and academic stakeholders including the Ministers of Education and various professional associations including historians, history teachers, pedagogues, et al. At the Ministers of Education of the COMEDAF meeting in November 2009, the African Ministers reaffirmed their support for the project and recalled the political leadership of the African Union on the Project. This continued cooperation between the Commission of the African Union and UNESCO has been necessary to facilitate the appropriation of the project.

Objectives

“This project gives us a formidable opportunity to develop a pan-African vision that also highlights the contribution of African cultures and civilizations to humankind.”
The main objective of Phase Two, entitled "The Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa" is to contribute to the regenerating of the teaching of African history on the basis of the General History of Africa in African Union member States with the view to promote the African regional integration process. In particular, the project aims to:

develop common content for use in African primary and secondary schools, for three different age groups as well as an historical atlas and an educational CD-Rom. The content could, if necessary, be adapted to local circumstances without changing the regional scope;
improve teacher training in light of the latest findings in historical research and advances made in the methodology and methods of history teaching. A teachers’ guide will be elaborated and guidelines to reinforce initial and in-service training of primary and secondary school teachers will be defined.
promote the teaching of and harmonize the use of the GHA in higher education institutions across the continent.

Implementation

To implement the project, UNESCO established a ten-member Scientific Committee representing the five sub regions of the Continent, entrusted with the intellectual and scientific responsibility of the project. The committee members were designated by the Director General of UNESCO in February 2009 after a series of consultations held with different partners and stakeholders including: the African Union, the Africa Group of UNESCO, the donor country, the African Historian Association, the International Association of Historians, and members of the former International Scientific Committee established for the first phase of the Project. These members are Professor Alaa El-din Shaheen, Professor Taieb El Bahloul, Professor Sifiso Ndlovu, Professor Amakobe Florida Karani, Professor Adame Ba Konaré, Professor Jean Michel Mabeko-Tali, Professor Lily Mafela, Professor Elikia M’bokolo, Professor Mamadou N’doye, Professor Bahru Zewde.
The aforementioned members were installed on 24 February 2009, in the framework of the Forum for African Regional and Sub-Regional Organizations to Support Cooperation between UNESCO and NEPAD that took place in Tripoli from 20–24 February 2009, UNESCO organized an Expert Meeting on 16–17 March 2009 to discuss the proposed methodology for the implementation of the project. This meeting was immediately followed by the first meeting of the Scientific Committee, which took place from 18–20 March 2009.

Major developments since the launch of Phase Two

Organization of an expert meeting: UNESCO organized on 16–17 March 2009 an Expert Meeting which gathered 35 experts from the different African sub regions, including members of the former International Scientific Committee for the first Phase of the GHA, editors and authors of the GHA volumes, representatives of African sub regional organizations et al. During the meeting, the experts discussed the proposed methodology for the implementation of the project and made concrete recommendations to the SC.
Organization of the 1st meeting of the SC:

The SC for the Pedagogical Use of the General History of Africa held its First Meeting from 18–20 March 2009 at UNESCO HQ. The Committee:
3. Endorsement by the Executive Council of the African Union

Endorsement by the Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union :
Designation of focal points within the African Ministers of Education :

46 African Ministers of Education out of 51 have designated focal points within their ministries to participate in and follow up the implementation of the project.

Designation of the drafting committees for the elaboration of pedagogical tools on the basis of the GHA:

The SC for the project met from 24 to 28 October 2010 to designate members of the drafting committees for the common pedagogical content and teachers guides. The Committee selected 30 experts who will compose the above-mentioned committees taking into account competency, gender, and geographical balance.

Conflicting views between historians

Because of the nature of the series, different historians had contrasting and conflicting views on certain subject matters.

Cheikh Anta Diop's "Origin of the ancient Egyptians" chapter

Cheikh Anta Diop's contribution to the second volume focused on the Ancient egyptian race controversy and his argument that "the whole of the Egyptian population was negro, barring an infiltration of white nomads in the proto-dynastic epoch", and that "the black population of Upper Egypt began to retreat only at the time of the Persian occupation". This argument was not universally accepted by the other contributors to the UNESCO series. Diop's chapter had a note from editor Gamal Mokhtar warning the reader that "The opinions expressed by Professor Cheikh Anta Diop in this chapter are those which he presented and developed at the Unesco symposium on 'The peopling of ancient Egypt' The arguments put forward in this chapter have not been accepted by all the experts interested in the problem." In the introduction to the volume, Mokhtar himself argued that "it is highly doubtful whether the inhabitants that introduced civilization into the Nile valley ever belonged to one single, pure race". Mokhtar later added in the introduction that “It is more than probable that the African strain, black or light, is preponderant in the Ancient Egyptian, but in the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to say more”.
In the 1981 edition, Mokhtar maintained that Upper Egypt and Nubia held "similar ethnic composition" with comparable material culture. Diop's chapter was followed by a summary of the 1974 Cairo symposium where Diop presented his ideas to 19 other historians.
The reactions to Diop's arguments at the symposion were wide-ranging. French professor Jean Leclant stressed the "African character of Egyptian civilization" but felt it was important to differentiate between 'race' and 'culture' and that there was no reason to rely on "outmoded studies" from Ernest Chantre, Grafton Elliot Smith, Giuseppe Sergi and Douglas Erith Derry as Diop had done. Sudanese professor Abdelgadir M. Abdalla noted that iconographic evidence showed that the "creators of the Napata culture had nothing in common with the Egyptians" and had "completely different" anatomical characteristics. He further argued that Diop's linguistic comparisons between Egyptian and Wolof were "neither convincing nor conclusive" and "it was hazardous to make too uncompromising a correlation between a language and an ethnic structure ". Abdalla's criticism of Diop's arguments lead to a "lively exchange of views on linguistic matters between Professors Abdalla and Diop". Egyptian professor Abu Bakr argued that "Egyptians had never been isolated from other peoples" and "never constituted a pure race". Congolese professor Theophile Obenga was however more supportive of Diop's views. He argued that "morphological, lexicological and syntactic similarities" provided "convincing proof of the close relationship between ancient Egyptian and negro-African languages of today" and that this was not the case "between Semitic, Berber and Egyptian". French professor Jean Vercoutter agreed with Diop that "the populations of the Egyptian reaches of the Nile Valley was homogenous as far as the southern extremity of the Delta" during the proto-dynastic and pre-dynastic periods. Overall, Diop's chapter was credited in the general conclusion of the 1974 symposium report by the International Scientific Committee's Rapporteur, Professor Jean Devisse, as a "painstakingly researched contribution" which nevertheless led to a "real lack of balance" in the discussion among participants.
Jan Vansina, who contributed chapters to volumes 1, 3-5, 7 and 8, noted that there had previously been a "clash" between Cheikh Anta Diop and Gamal Mokhtar on the matter of topics that would be included in the second volume. The committee then decided on the "principle of heterogeneity" and that uniformity on the interpretation of historical evidence would not be imposed on any historian writing for the UNESCO General History of Africa.
Larissa Nordholt argued that Diop's chapter was politically motivated, having been published only due to being in line with UNESCO's political imperatives, despite clashing with accepted historical methods and standards of academic rigor. Nordholdt argued that Diop's views aligned with the decolonisation efforts of the General History of Africa but he premised his arguments on outdated, racialism which classified humanity into distinct groups with a biological essence. Nordholdt specified the point of contention between Diop and other historians such as the basis of methodology and his reliance on outdated, eighteenth century and nineteenth century European sources. However, she did state that the contributors did "come to a general consensus that the Egyptians could not not have been “white" in the same way that Europeans were" and the dissemination of Diop's ideas contributed to a wider recognition that the Ancient Egypt was an African civilisation although his methods were "not considered entirely permissible by most of the other GHA historians".
Bethwell Allan Ogot, a Kenyan historian and editor of UNESCO General History of Africa Volume 5, stated that "Cheikh Anta Diop wrested Egyptian civilization from the Egyptologists and restored it to the mainstream of African history".
According to a 2017 BBC nine-part series based on the General History of Africa book collection, UNESCO scholars are cited as having now reached the view that the matter is settled and “that the Pharaohs and their people must be placed firmly within the Black African context”.

2025 UNESCO multidisciplinary review of the 1974 symposium

In 2025, the UNESCO International Scientific Committee members for drafting the General History of Africa Volumes IX-XI reached the view that Egypt had African and Eurasian populations, with Upper Egypt now repositioned as the origin of pharaonic unification, with close genetic, linguistic, archaeological and anthropological affinities identified between the Upper Egyptian populations and Sub-Saharan groups. Anthropologist and Egyptologist, Alain Anselin, reviewed the Volume II edition and conclusions of the 1974 symposium, stating that the accumulated data had aligned with Diop's views. Specifically, this related to recent research "over the last thirty years" confirming the early migration of Saharan and Southernly African populations to the Nile Valley. According to Anselin, the traditional view of a north to south orientation had been displaced by the weight of evidence which favoured the preponderance of Upper Egypt. In his review section, Anselin referenced a number of anthropological, linguistic, archaeological and climatological data which had established close links between Upper Egyptian populations and groups across Sub-Saharan Africa. Other African scholars in the recent volume including Augustin Holl, Olabiyi B.J. Yai, Yoporeka Somet, Martial Ze Belinga and Hamady Bocoum made favourable references to the intellectual influence of Cheikh Anta Diop in explicating bias in Western scholarship and serving as an early figure in constructing a multidisciplinary approach, with a particular emphasis on a scientific methodology, towards African history. Somet also observed the prescient value of Diop's works in recognizing the African origin of humanity and early Egyptian civilization by "the middle of the century".

John Parkington's "Southern Africa" chapter

John Parkington contributed a chapter on hunters and food-gatherers in Southern Africa for the second volume of the UNESCO series. The committee behind the UNESCO series however expressed "serious reservations" on the methods used in the chapter by the author, as these would cause confusion for the reader by presenting them with information on both the Palaeolithic era and contemporary southern Africa at the same time. Parkington was asked to partially alter his text but did not consider it possible. An agreement was therefore reached that the chapter be published in this form but with a note warning the reader of reservations expressed by the committee.

Chapter on the Bantu Expansion

Volume 3 included a chapter on the Bantu expansion written by Samwiri Lwanga-Lunyiigo and Jan Vansina. The editor's note on this chapter explained that the two authors had "different scientific training and divergent opinions", though could agree on "the most important questions". There was however one remaining "serious disagreement" on a theory presented by Samwiri Lwanga-Lunyiigo that differs from the opinion of most specialists on the field of the Bantu expansion but this had been retained for inclusion in the volume.

Withdrawn chapter from Volume 3

An unnamed author was asked to write a chapter on the east African coast and supported Neville Chittick's belief that cities on the east African coast were "basically Asian". All but two of the committee members disagreed with this argument and the committee as a whole agreed that Chittick's position did not account for all known archaeological evidence. This chapter was replaced by another written by Fidelis T. Masao and Henry W. Mutoro.

Map in Volume 5

A debate arose over the correct terminology to use for a map to accompany the chapter "The African diaspora in the old and new worlds". Delegates from different countries were sent to UNESCO to argue either for the use of the term "Persian Gulf" or "Arabian Gulf". The debate over this minor point would block the publication of the fifth volume until 1992.

Reception

Volumes 1 and 2

Christopher Ehret reviewed volume 1 for the African Studies Review and described it as an "essential reference book", referring to the first seven chapters as "useful summaries" for non-specialists. Ehret commended the selection of "most contributors in most volumes were scholastically apt choices" across the eight-volume series. However, he noted a number of limitations with the first volume such as the broad focus on historical geography and non-written sources across several chapters. Also, he criticised the over-representation of older, non-African scholars as contributors with some scholars "thwarting Ki-Zerbo's aspirations 'to bring the picture up to date', no more to tell us than in the 1950s". Similarly, he criticised the inclusion of speculative, theories of David Dalby into chapters which examine African linguistic classification and the lack of focus on the current developments in the linguistic field.
In his review of the first two volumes for The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Ivor Wilks described the volumes as "handsome" and available at "so modest a price" compared to most other works on similar topics released by major commercial publishers. Wilks further described the series as "a useful monument to the state of African historiography in the 1970s and 1980s", though also noted that it would have to go through a "continuous process of revision" to "retain its value as a reliable work of reference". He also stated that the quality of individual chapters "vary considerably", with some chapters showing "an original contribution to the field" while others "make no pretense to be more than surveys". Wilks noted that "probably few of would otherwise have seen the light of day in the regular learned journals". Wilks described Volume 2 as having "less thematic unity" than the first volume, singling out Cheikh Anta Diop's "shrill" chapter on his "idiosyncratic" views of Ancient Egypt and the unusual step of the editor providing a warning to the reader on this particular chapter.
Michael Brett reviewed volume 2 for The Journal of African History, noting that while it would become "a necessary part of the library of anyone interested in the history of Africa as a whole", it would nonetheless "daunt the uninitiated" and "disappoint the specialist". He observed that despite the length of the book there was a problem with "compression" of information, with most chapters being "too short to allow the subject the exposition it deserves". In discussing the chapters on Egypt, which made up a third of the volume, Brett felt that space had been "simply wasted" with some chapters repeating information mentioned earlier in the volume. He also felt that much of the historical context of Ancient Egypt had been "squeezed almost out of existence", partly due to Cheikh Anta Diop's chapter on the 'Origins of the Ancient Egyptians' which was simply a "restatement" of this author's views and the "long résumé of on the subject" inserted afterwards seemingly as a "corrective to 's idosyncratic view". As a result of space being taken up by this debate, the volume lacked any "discussion of pre-dynastic Egypt and the settlement of the Nile valley which made possible the subsequent civilization". Brett further criticized the later chapters on Egypt, such as the one on Hellenistic Egypt which had "virtually no dates" or profile given for the rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Brett did however praise the chapters on Nubia as providing a "satisfying account" of the Egyptian Empire south of Aswan, as well as the kingdoms based at Napata and Meroe.
Brett found fault with the chapters dealing with Aksum, which had a focus that was "resolutely South Arabian Semitic" with "extremely scant attention paid to the Abyssinian region as a whole". He singled out the chapter on the hunters and food-gatherers of Southern Africa, which included a note by the committee stating that they were unhappy with the author relying on recent ethnographic material, far beyond the chronological limits of this volume, to give an idea of what life was like for these people in ancient times. Brett however felt this chapter was a "most readable account" compared to the "rigidly archeological approach" used by other chapters on sub-Saharan Africa.
Adeline Apena reviewed the second volume for the Comparative Civilizations Review as a "major document in African history" and "dismisses the general sense of invalidity that surrounds use of African oral traditions as historical source material for African history". Apena noted the second volume has an emphasis on the relationship between environment, local resources and the growth of civilisations. However, she remained critical of "the Egyptian scholars in this debate who do not seem to accept that the ancient Egyptians were the same as the dark-skinned Sub-Saharans, in spite of the cultural similarities". Apena concluded that "the lower Nile and its Delta are likely to have blended the stocks of peoples that inhabited the region from Libya to Near East and southwards towards Nubia" but scholarly judgements in the second volume were inconclusive due to the obscurity of the period, scarcity of sources and dated sources.

Volume 3

J. E. G. Sutton reviewed Volume 3 for The Journal of African Study, noting that the chapters were of "varying quality and lucidity" but could be used for scholarly reference or education provided that the reader is "patient enough to sift and select" from among the chapters. He further noted that not all authors in the volume had the "breadth of vision and experience" needed for this kind of book, with some possibly receiving "insufficient editorial guidance" or conversely having "suffered excessive interference". Sutton also felt that the dating system used in the series would be confusing to most readers and that the overall presentation of the volume was not "sufficiently inviting". Sutton additionally noted that, like Volume 2, this volume was more heavily focused on Northern Africa than Africa further to the South, though there was a "valiant" attempt to draw together information on the continent as a whole in the final chapter and he commended the "obvious and strenuous effort" to include every region of Africa in the discussion.

Volume 6

In a review for The Journal of African Study, E. Ann McDougell stated that this volume fared well in regards to quality but felt dated and could be considered "state of the art" of African historiography in the years c. 1975–1980, with only a handful of post-1980s publications listed in the bibliography. She did however praise the book for its "genuinely continental" geographical coverage, the "excellent quality" maps and photographs, establishing both "regional world linkages" and the range of "eminent scholars" who are given "sufficient space to cover their commissioned subject matter". She also sympathised with the "logistical and financial problems" of such an ambitious project which made the publication delay inevitable, but this was still "too long" given the range of quality works that historians were producing by the mid-1980s.

Volume 7

Reviewing the abridged edition of volume 7 for The Journal of African Study, Kirstin Mann felt that "none of the 's goals wholly realized". She noted that while the individual essays may have adequately "summarized the state of knowledge when they were written", they were now out of date and "little debate emerges within them". Mann however welcomed the chapters on North Africa which can "bridge the divide that too often separates scholarship on North and Sub-Saharan Africa" and commended Albert Adu Boahen on the difficult task of editing the volume. She singled out chapters by Ranger, Ibrahim and Ali, Isaacman and Vansina, Chanaiwa, Crowder, Coquery-Vidrovitch, Afigbo and Atieno-Odhaimbo as those that made "lasting contributions" to African historiography but observed that most chapters lacked any "systematic analysis of struggle, conflict and cleavage within African societies" during the period of study. Mann ultimately summarised the volume as " and engaged, if dated, unwieldy and uneven" and criticised the abridged edition's lack of notes and "good bibliography".

General

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza writes that the General History of Africa had very little information on women.