Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-292) and index.

People and their environment : Africa's climate and demography. The perils of rainfall variations ; Population growth and decline ; The ecology of health ; Greater demographic disparities ; Greater mobility ; The inflow of foreigners ; A harsh environment -- Political and warlike Islam : the Maghreb and West Africa before the colonial conquest. The Maghreb before the conquest ; The western Sudan at the turn of the nineteenth century ; A major focus : trans-Saharan trade ; Jihad and the religious Islam of conquest ; Adrift under western pressure : Samori -- Political and merchant Islam : East Africa. Modernity as an option : Egypt ; At the crossroads of worlds : Ethiopia ; Old-style colonization : Zanzibar ; In the margins between worlds : Rabīh -- Animism's resistance, openness and introversion : central-western Africa. The reformism of the coastal empires ; The peoples of the interior -- The meeting of cultures : Southern Africa. Upheaval at the beginning of the nineteenth century ; Shaka and the Zulu revolution : revision of an analysis ; Lesotho : colonized bastion ; The English, the Africans, and the Boers : the genesis of segregation -- Colonial intervention. The beginnings of colonial imperialism in sub-Saharan Africa ; The genesis of colonial government ; The end of colonial conquests ; Resistance ; Algeria, from revolt to colonization -- The century's innovations. Slavery : a mode of production that had become dominant ; Christianity : the missionary factor in changing mentalities ; Economic and social changes : systems of production and lifestyles ; New social players : gender relations, urbanization ; Culture and the arts.