Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize Cundill History Prize Fage and Oliver Prize the
Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award Winner of the Historical
Writers' Association Non-Fiction Crown 2020Winner of the American Historical Association's
Jerry Bentley Prize in World History 2020 Winner of the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global
Cultural Understanding 2019 An Observer and Wall Street Journal Book of the Year 2019A
groundbreaking history that will transform our view of West Africa By the time of the 'Scramble
for Africa' in the late nineteenth century Africa had already been globally connected for many
centuries. Its gold had fuelled the economies of Europe and Islamic world since around 1000
and its sophisticated kingdoms had traded with Europeans along the coasts from Senegal down to
Angola since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650 this was a trade of equals using a
variety of currencies - most importantly shells: the cowrie shells imported from the Maldives
and the nzimbu shells imported from Brazil. Toby Green's groundbreaking new book transforms our
view of West and West-Central Africa. It reconstructs the world of kingdoms whose existence
(like those of Europe) revolved around warfare taxation trade diplomacy complex religious
beliefs royal display and extravagance and the production of art. Over time the relationship
between Africa and Europe revolved ever more around the trade in slaves damaging Africa's
relative political and economic power as the terms of monetary exchange shifted drastically in
Europe's favour. In spite of these growing capital imbalances longstanding contacts ensured
remarkable connections between the Age of Revolution in Europe and America and the birth of a
revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa. A Fistful of Shells draws not just on written
histories but on archival research in nine countries on art praise-singers oral history
archaeology letters and the author's personal experience to create a new perspective on the
history of one of the world's most important regions. 'Astonishing staggering' Ben Okri Daily
Telegraph
