Well I must say that’s all the more kudos for the author, she clearly did a good job. I’ll definitely look out for this. Thanks Jenny, for finding the books we didn’t know we wanted to read! 🙂

You are more than welcome! Always happy to tell people about exciting African history books!

I know! It must have been an absolutely monumental effort by the author. But yes, I tend to think that she weighed the evidence carefully, with an eye to the biases of all sources. My recollection (it’s been a bit now since I finished reading the book) is that — like many groups that got accused of practicing cannibalism — is that the cannibalism/human sacrifice elements were carefully circumscribed as part of really specific religious practice, rather than being, like, an everyday thing.

You’re so sweet! But I am far too lazy to write that article/book. I want someone to write it FOR me so that I can profit from the fruits of their labor. :p

I have one actually! I keep forgetting to link to it in the individual posts, and it’s not easy to find on the website. But here’s the clearinghouse page: http://readingtheend.com/books-ive-rea/the-great-africa-reading-project/

It must be extremely difficult researching a book like this, where so much of the documentary evidence is from one side (colonialists) or is official correspondence with political motives and thus perhaps only part of a more complex picture. Did you have the impression that there was a sound basis for the more lurid aspects of Njinga’s life (e.g. the cannibalism) or was that all from the Europeans’ side and part of the savage Africans narrative?