This book vividly depicts Somalia from its pre-colonial period to the present day, documenting the tumultuous history of a nation that has faced many challenges.
Somalia is a nation with a history that stretches back more than ten millennia to the beginnings of human civilization. This book provides sweeping coverage of Somalia’s history ranging from the earliest times to its modern-day status as a country of ten million inhabitants, providing a unique social-scientific treatment of the nation’s key issues across ethnic and regional boundaries.
The book addresses not only Somali sociocultural and political history but also covers Somalia’s administration and economy, secessionist movements, civil and regional wars, and examines the dynamics of state collapse, democratization, terrorism, and piracy in contemporary times. The author details the extremely rich history of the Somali people and their customs while documenting past history, enabling readers to make meaning out of the country’s ongoing crisis.
Raphael Chijioke Njoku, PhD, is the chair and director of the International Studies Program/Department of Economics, and professor of African/world history at Idaho State University. He received his doctorate in African history from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, in 2003 and a doctorate in political science from Vrije University Brussel in 2001. He is the author of Culture and Customs of Morocco; African Cultural Values: Igbo Political Leadership in Colonial Nigeria, 1900–1966, and coeditor of four books, including Missions, States and European Expansion in Africa, War and Peace in Africa, Africa and the Wider World, and African History. Njoku has also authored 30 scholarly articles and is the founding editor of Notes and Records: An International Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies.
Reviews
"A good basic introduction for anybody interested in the region."—Booklist, July 1, 2013
"The author of this work, the chair/director of the International Studies Program at Idaho State University, has written quite a nice monograph on Somali history in only about 200 pages. . . . This work is recommended for most libraries, but especially high school, college, and public libraries."—ARBA, April 1, 2013
The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations
Every school and public library should update its resources with these engagingly written and succinct narrative histories of the world’s nations covering prehistoric times through today. Based on the most recent scholarship, each history provides a chronological narrative examining the political, cultural, philosophical, and religious continuities in the featured nation’s long, rich history in an exploration of how its people came to be who they are today. Each volume includes a chronological narrative history, a timeline of events, biographical sketches of key figures, a glossary, and a bibliographic essay.
