Reginmund,I think it would be interesting to find out other written sources in regards to Pre Colonial era Africa, but i'm not sure where to find them. I have ideas at where to look. we know that the Swahili traders came in contact with india and china during the middle ages, perhaps some indian or chinese scholar or merchant wrote of these poeple. Another source that comes to mind is the libraries at Timbuktu, which from what i heard, have many books and or volumes but are spread around the world, mainly being owned by private collectors. However, there are still some books that remain and are being keep by the families that still reside in the area. One more source, one far older but hasn't been deciphered yet is merotic scripts. Deciphering them would give a unique window into that part of africa at that particulat time. I'm not aware of how much of these older accounts and records remain nor how they are being preserved. I would hope that they are still in good condition and readable.
From what i know about these civilizations, Mali had written scripts during the middle ages using arabic writing. however the malians did develop a sort of dialect in the their scripts. and then Perhaps the people of Meroe may have some accounts aorund 200 BC in their merotic writing system.
seen here
perhaps if and when their are deciphered we can read what they had to say, especially dealing with historical events.
I have heard of other writing, available here
perhaps looking for possible translations of scripts in theses writing systems can give us more accounts of what took place and when in SSA before the Imperialistic Era.
Beorna, indeed your are correct, i do intend to focus on specific areas and times but i would like to cover a lot of ground when commencing research. I think i may start with the city state of Kilwa. I'm very fasnicated by their 2 story homes made of coral, their maritime trade throught the indian ocean and the alleged
"toilet or sewer system". Not sure how credible it is but it would be interesting to find out about it.
Edited by Tk101 - 29-Oct-2008 at 18:03