The Pygmies Were Our Compass : Bantu and Batwa in the History of West Central Africa, Early Times to c. 1900 C.E.

Covering more than 2,000 years this important region's history, this book is a groundbreaking contribution to the knowledge of pre-colonial Africa. It is the first historical work to reconstruct a Batwa or "Pygmy" past, thereby questioning Western epistemologies that have long portrayed the Batwa as a quintessential people without history. Clearly written, jargon-free, immensely ambitious, provocative, and daring, this book will forever change the way Africanists approach their scholarship. Klieman issues a stinging reminder that the logic of race and social evolutionism prevalent in many scholarly and popular treatments of Africa is by no means dead. Her book stands as a powerful corrective to assumptions-even subconscious ones-about "backward" societies and smug beliefs about the criteria for defining what is considered civilized and what is not.