Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. In Green’s own words: Africa has been so global for so long that its. A Fistful of Shells draws not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, on art, praise-singers, oral history, archaeology, letters and the author's personal experience to create a new perspective on the history of one of the world's most important regions. A Fistful of Shells is principally an attempt to show how West Africa’s precolonial histories are central to an understanding of the dilemmas of the present and to highlight the active role of its peoples in history, thereby transforming our view of the region. Toby Green's groundbreaking new book transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa. Until at least 1650, this was a trade of equals, using a variety of currencies - most importantly shells- the cowrie shells imported from the Maldives, and the nzimbu shells imported from Brazil. Its gold had fuelled the economies of Europe and the Islamic world since around 1000 CE, and its sophisticated kingdoms had traded with Europeans along the coasts from Senegal down to Angola since the fifteenth century. By the time of the 'Scramble for Africa' in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for many centuries.
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