The New Encyclopedia of Africa is a revised, updated and expanded edition of Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara, issued in four volumes under the Scribner's imprint of the Gale Group in 1997. Editor in chief Middleton was also in charge for this earlier set which received wide critical acclaim as well as winning the Africana Librarian Council's Conover Porter Award and achieving listing as a Choice “Outstanding Academic Title”. The original edition contained 896 articles in one and a half million words. This “new” encyclopaedia adds a volume, has 1,121 articles, runs to two million words and, most importantly, extends coverage across the entire continent rather than confining itself to Africa south of the Sahara. In setting the context and to avoid any confusion, it should also be noted that a separate version of the original 1997 edition for the higher education market was published in four volumes in 2002 as Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students.
Everything about this “new” encyclopaedia is impressive. Editor in chief Middleton and editor Miller have been supported by eight associate editors and six “advisors”. Although predominantly North American, a number of these are from elsewhere and amongst the two British names is Basil Davidson, veteran African history expert and writer. The contributors, listed with affiliations in the Directory of Contributors in the final volume, number approximately 700. Again, although North Americans predominate, the spread is refreshingly international with a reasonable number drawn from institutions on the African continent itself. Librarians will be pleased to see several members of the profession listed including Marion Wallace of the British Library and Gretchen Walsh of Boston University's African Studies Library who, fittingly, provides the article Libraries. Adding to the works stature, as one would expect from a Gale family publication, are excellent presentation and organization. The volumes are sturdily bound and crisply presented in two‐column format. There are 650 black‐and‐white illustrations, tables and maps relatively evenly distributed across the entries, while each volume also contains eight pages of themed colour plates in the central pages (e.g. Art and architecture in the final volume). Colour continent‐wide maps at the beginning and end of each volume are an additional feature. A Table of Contents conveniently lists the articles at the beginning of the first volume, while there are various other supporting apparatus and navigational aids in the final volume, on which more in the penultimate paragraph below.
The 1,121 articles are spread across all five volumes. Preceding these in the initial volume is a brief preface by the editor in chief and four introductory essays that provide a historical context for the study of the continent and highlight some of the themes that underlie many of the articles: “Invention and images of Africa”; “The idea of Africa in political and social thought”; “Africans: the past in the present”; “Genocidal wars of identity”. The preface tells us that of the articles “821 are essays, both long and short, on specific topics, many of them placed in some 86 composite entries on wider topics or in 53 composite entries on all the particular independent countries; 96 of them are on particular towns and cities. There are also 305 biographies, of both present day and historical figures” (p. xxx). Examples of major topical essays include “Capitalism and commercialization”, spanning 17 pages and divided into Overview and Employment and Unemployment sections, and Energy with 14 pages and sub‐articles headed Domestic, Electrification, Internal Combustion Engine and Petroleum Derivatives. An even longer essay is “Ethnicity” which is divided into five regional sub‐articles and occupies nearly 30 pages. Country articles are also generally lengthy. “Zambia” takes nearly 12 pages and is divided into Geography and Economy, Society and Cultures and History and Politics sections. Country articles also provide tabulated statistical and other data. Entries for towns and cities are comparatively brief, for example Dar Es Salaam with two columns and Porto Novo (Benin) barely one column. Biographical articles vary in length from a column to several pages. Contemporary figures tend to dominate, examples including Maathai, Wangari (Female Kenyan politician and environmentalist) with one page and Mandela, Nelson with two pages.
All articles are signed and have appended bibliographical references. These tend to be relatively restrained, even for longer essays, usually not exceeding ten in number and are mostly confined to English language books. Most articles conclude with boldface see also references to related entries. These are just part of the extensive navigational apparatus provided to aid users which adds significantly to the utility of this encyclopaedia as a reference tool for both quick queries and more extensive research. The main Index located in the final volume extends to nearly one hundred pages and is a model of its kind. Boldface type denotes references to articles while italicised type indicates illustrations, figures and tables. Subheadings are extensively employed to avoid lengthy undifferentiated sequences. Presumably conscious that encyclopaedias of this type can scatter material on major themes because of their alphabetical structure, the editorial team also provide a Thematic Outline of Contents under 15 major headings such as Environment, Geography, Human Origins and Health and Education. A further feature of the final volume are three appendices, a Chronology in five regional subsections running to a relatively modest 14 pages, an appendix headed History Coverage of the Encyclopedia which outlines the rational for the treatment and arrangement of the historical content, and Ethnic and Identity Groups. This latter appendix, which is in tabulated form, occupies over forty pages and is one of the encyclopaedias most useful additional features. Information provided for each group includes location, linguistic affiliation and population estimate and draws heavily on material in Africa: Its Peoples and their Culture History (Murdock, 1959).
That the publisher was prepared to produce a “new” encyclopedia just ten years after the original venture is testimony to the centrality of this work to Africana reference material. The original volume was hailed as one of the most important references on the continent ever produced and with the extensive revision and updating that has taken place to make this a truly “new” work this status is reinforced. The recent major set Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and the African American (Gates and Appiah, 2005) has a less concentrated focus and does not act as a rival work across all the spread of the New Encyclopedia of Africa, despite a larger number of entries. A few other works may provide coverage to rival some of the history content, for example Encyclopedia of African History (Shillington, 2005) (RR 2006/54), and other sets may give deeper coverage of parts of the continent, for example Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (Mattar, 2004) (RR 2005/385), but overall New Encyclopedia of Africa stands apart. At $625 for the printed set it will not be a cheap acquisition for any library, but it will be money well spent. Large public and academic libraries seeking to maintain comprehensive general reference collections should aim to purchase. Libraries serving institutions where Africa is a subject of in‐depth study or a research have no choice; here acquisition will be mandatory.
