Download or read book Towards an Understanding of the African Experience from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives written by Festus Ugboaja Ohaegbulam and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1990 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introductory survey provides a rich understanding of the African experience which, until recently, either had been omitted from the curriculum of institutions of higher learning or was distorted in written and oral literature. The book identifies the post-World War II civil rights movement in America and the independence revolution in Africa as the most decisive forces that generated interest in the study of the African/black experience. Includes four theoretical models for interpreting the black experience. The author discusses the place and role of Africa in the development of human civilization, focusing on Africa's Nile Valley civilizations and Western Sudanic empires. It probes aspects of traditional African culture, including the family, traditional political institutions and religion, and analyzes the impact on Africa and its peoples of such historical traumas as slavery, colonialism, and decolonization.