Motherland

A Journey through 500,000 Years of African Culture and Identity

Luke Pepera

A groundbreaking exploration of 500,000 years of African history, cultures and identity.

Historian, archaeologist, and anthropologist Luke Pepera takes us on a personal journey discovering 500,000 years of African history and cultures in order to reclaim and reconnect with this extraordinary heritage. He tackles the question many people of African descent ask - Who are we? Where do we come from? What defines us? And it explores how knowledge of this deeper history might affect current understandings of African identity.

Through thematically-linked chapters that explore aspects of African identity from nomadic culture and matriarchal society to beliefs about the afterlife and the tradition of oral storytelling, and interwoven with Luke's own experiences of exploring his Ghanaian family history and his personal questions of identity, this is a comprehensive, relevant and beautifully told new history of Africa, and how it has shaped the world we know today.

Luke Pepera is a writer, broadcaster, historian, and anthropologist dedicated to sharing his passion for African history and cultures. He was born in Ghana and has a degree from St. Peter's College, Oxford, where he read Archaeology & Anthropology and studied ancient and medieval African history. Since graduating he has worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum, The Times, and Tatler, and has written and presented Africa: Written Out of History, a documentary for Dan Snow's History Hit.

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Endorsements & Reviews

"Magisterial, brilliant, capacious and transformative, this astonishing journey into the heart of Africa is a superb synthesis, an analysis of 500,000 years of history and the most gripping, colourful and marvellous journey possible. The continent of Africa is here, vivid with life, death, survival, hope and stories." Kate Williams, author of Becoming Queen Victoria