Africa is richly varied in almost every way—geologically, climatically, racially, linguistically, culturally. Are there then no themes, no patterns of development that hold good for the entire continent, or large areas ofit, and which will help us to understand what was happening in different places? Indeed there are, and the purpose ofthese first few pages is to survey the major events in broad outline, to build up a framework of history to which the more detailed information that comes later in the book can be attached.