Edward Wilmot Blyden, a West Indian born scholar and statesman who made his life’s work in Liberia, wrote this 1887 collection of essays comparing how Christianity and Islam had shaped African societies, and argued forcefully for a distinct African identity rather than imitation of European models.
Widely regarded as the founding text of Pan-Africanism, it influenced generations of African thinkers and independence leaders who followed. Dense, ambitious and still cited wherever African self determination is discussed.
