AFRICAN DOMINION, a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa

505pp., maps, paperback, Princeton, 2018

Winner of the ASA Book Prize (Herskovits), African Studies Association and the Martin A. Klein Prize, American Historical Association.

"African Dominion is a stunning achievement. It restores precolonial Africa to historical attention and places the continent - marked by intelligent leadership, sophisticated knowledge, vibrant trans-Saharan commerce, and the dynamic impact of Islam—at the center of a global world. Michael Gomez offers a flowing narrative of innovations between the tenth and sixteenth centuries, when Africa was ahead of many other places around the world, and he provides a new understanding of caste, race, slavery, ethnicity, and gender as they evolved centuries ago. Brilliant, fascinating, and original, this is a revolutionary book."Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

"In this brilliant book, Michael Gomez, one of the most accomplished historians of Africa, completely renews our understanding of the long, rich story of West Africa by focusing on the continuity between the great empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. He has succeeded in reconciling the history of Africa with itself and its diasporas." Boubacar Barry, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal

"Utterly original and elegantly narrated, African Dominion provides a more complete, complex, and comparative picture of West Africa than previously available. It will have radical implications."Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University

Michael A. Gomez is the Silver Professor of History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. His books include Reversing Sail: a history of the African diaspora and Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: the precolonial state of Bundu.