Inventing Africa is a critical account of narratives which have selectively interpreted and misinterpreted the continent's deep past.

Table of Contents

• Preface: The construction of African pasts
• 1. The changing shape and perception of ‘Africa’
• 2. Mythic and mystic Africa
• 3. Looking both ways: the enigma of Raymond Dart
• 4. Egos and fossils
• 5. Stirring the gene pool: human ancestors from Africa to the wider world
• 6. Ancient Egypt and African sources of civilisation
• 7. Old states good, new states bad
• 8. The present of the past