The golden tone of Floyd Cooper's lush illustrations convey the rich history of ancient cultures on the African continent, beginning with Nubia in 3800 BCE, which traded in gold, ebony, cattle, and ostrich feathers, and may have been the first culture to advance the idea of divine rulers, and ending with the Empire of the Kongo, which thrived from the 14th century to 1641, when its rulers were defeated by Portuguese armies. Arranged in chronological order according to the years each culture flourished, Haskins and Benson introduce young readers to these subjects, as well as Egypt, Kush and Meroë, Jenne-Jeno, the spread of Islam, Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Timbuktu, Benin, and Great Zimbabwe. Each subject is accorded a double-page spread that includes a brief text and a detailed landscape or city scene that gives a sense of time and place. (Ages 9-12)

From the ancient kingdom of Kush, whose black pharaohs ruled Egypt for nearly a century, to the sixteenth-century empire of the Kongo, whose emperor was so powerful he was able to halt the trade in slaves for a number of years, the African continent rang with a series of glorious civilizations that have had a lasting impact on the world's history, and on American culture. James Haskins and Floyd Cooper have won numerous awards for their books for young people, including several Coretta Scott King Honor awards. This groundbreaking book is their first collaboration. Index. Bibliography. All ages.

Consultants on this book were Dr. John Henrik Clarke, noted scholar of black history, and Dr. Enid Schildkrout, curator of anthropology, The American Museum of Natural History.