CAS MT Seminar Series: Max Siollun - 'The Forgotten Era: Nigeria before British Rule' - ONLINE ONLY

Please join us for an online talk by Dr Max Siollun

Dr Max Siollun is an author and historian who specialises in Nigerian history. He has written five books on Nigeria’s history. His most recent book (which he will discuss during the seminar) is a history of pre-colonial Nigeria entitled The Forgotten Era: Nigeria Before British Rule. It is a prequel to his previous book What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule (which BBC History Magazine shortlisted as one of its Books of the Year). Dr Siollun has also written for many publications including the New York Times, Guardian, the Independent and Foreign Policy.

Book Synopsis:

Much is known about what Europeans did in Nigeria, yet far less is known about the country’s history before Britain conquered and ruled it. In this book, Max Siollun uncovers a pre-colonial society that was not part of a backward ‘dark continent’, but one rich with lore to rival the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Pre-colonial West Africa had a mesmerising cast of revolutionaries, intellectuals, innovators, and villainous assassins. These include the family that overthrew three different 1000-year-old kingdoms and when not causing revolutions; found time to write over 300 different publications, the royal court official who engineered the death of four kings he worked for, and the young enslaved boy who became the first Black bishop in history, a linguist, scholar, prolific writer, and befriended Queen Victoria along the way.

This book is a vital read for those who want to discover a forgotten era of West African history.

Book Endorsements:

“This is the indispensable book for anyone interested in the pre-colonial history of what now constitutes Nigeria. Incredibly necessary, magnificently done” – Dr Remi Adekoya

“Max Siollun has succeeded at a near-impossible task: making Nigeria’s precolonial history accessible for readers without flattening the tremendous diversity of the many peoples who would eventually become one nation” -
Professor Alex Thurston

“Blending the rigour of a scholar with the captivating depth of a griot, he brings history to life with a cinematic sweep” – Gimba Kakand