Berger, Iris, E. Frances White, and Cathy Skidmore-Heiss. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: Restoring Women to History. 1999. Necessary reading for a complete understanding of African history.

Cooper, Frederick. Plantation Slavery on the East Coast of Africa. 1997. Useful study of slavery as practiced in Africa.

Fredrickson, G. M. Racism: A Short History. 2002. Contains probably the best recent study of the connection between African slavery and Western racism.

Klein, Martin, and Claire C. Robertson. Women and Slavery in Africa. 1997. Written from the perspective that most slaves in Africa were women.

Law, Robin. Oyo Empire, c. 1600–c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. 1977. Remains the definitive study of the powerful Oyo Empire in what is today southwestern Nigeria.

Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformation in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa, 3d ed. 2012. Essential for an understanding of slavery in an African context.

Middleton, J. The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization. 1992. Introduction to East Africa and the Horn region.

Northrup, D. Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450–1850, 3d ed. 2013. Offers a unique perspective on African-European contact.

Oliver, Roland, and Anthony Atmore. Medieval Africa, 1250–1800. 2001. A history of premodern Africa by two renowned historians of the continent.

Pearson, Michael N. Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era. 2002. Comprehensive introduction to the Swahili coast and the Indian Ocean trade network.

Powell, Eve Troutt, and John O. Hunwick. The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam. 2002. Important study of Islam and the African slave trade.

Robinson, David. Muslim Societies in African History. 2004. Valuable introduction to Islam in Africa by a renowned Africanist.

Shell, R. Children of Bondage: A Social History of the Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1938. 1994. A massive study of Cape slave society filled with much valuable statistical data.

Shillington, K. History of Africa, 3d ed. 2012. A soundly researched, highly readable, and well-illustrated survey.

Thorton, J. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1680, 2d ed. 1998. Places African developments in an Atlantic context.