Africa: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Society. Edited by Toyin Falola and Daniel Jean-Jacques. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2016. 3 vols. Acid free $294.00 (ISBN: 978-1-59884-665-2). E-book available (978-1-59884-666-9), call for pricing.

Africa: An Encyclopedia of Culture and Society was created to “challenge stereotypes and assumptions and invite the reader into the world of African Studies” (vii) by featuring entries written by over fifty scholars, experts in African Studies or related fields who “have lived in Africa or are Africans, themselves. . . . The voice of Africa’s people is alive and well in these volumes” (viii). The originality and diversity of voices represented in this three-volume series is a positive and unique feature of this encyclopedia, but may not be enough to inspire acquisition, for some, in light of questions of the efficacy of these volumes as a quality reference work.

The series begins with a brief thematic and regional introduction to Africa as a continent, including a basic map and chronology, and continues with fifty-four alphabetical country entries. The editors explicitly state that their encyclopedia’s “essential purpose is to offer the uninitiated a window into the cultural world of Africa” (vii), yet the language of the introduction and many of the encyclopedia entries themselves are far too dense for readers new to the material, assuming a level of familiarity with geography, history, and terminology that many readers may not have. In addition, the content of the introduction spans nearly the entire history of the continent in a mere ten pages, beginning with the Neolithic Revolution in 16000 BCE and ending with the Republic of Ghana’s Declaration of Independence in 1957. Readers versed in African Studies would agree with the authors that “a complete historical background of Africa would be a work of many volumes unto itself, and well beyond the purview of these brief introductory remarks” (xi), yet may still find themselves wishing for broader and more concise contextual information.

The country entries themselves are comprehensive in scope. Each entry begins with an “Introduction” that may include “Geography,” “People and Ethnicity,” and “Languages,” and continues with information in the following sections: “Religion,” “Social Customs,” “Lifestyle and Leisure,” “Employment,” “Gender Roles, Marriage, and Family,” “Cuisine,” “Dress,” “Sports and Games,” “Festivals and Holidays,” “Music and Dance,” “Visual Art,” “Architecture and Housing,” “Literature and Oral Traditions,” and “Media.” These latter categories uniquely highlight many aspects often underrepresented in other reference works about Africa, and showcase the diversity of cultural experience across the continent. Readers interested in vernacular architecture, traditional and modern art across countries, and cuisine, for example, will be rewarded with detailed information and black and white photographs, and recipes where relevant. However, the narrative style, tone, and cohesion of the information presented can vary widely across entries. Terms are not defined in the text, nor called out for definition by a glossary; subjects are not cross-indexed. References listed at the end of each entry are also inconsistent in density and quality; suggested further reading on the topic of Algerian author Albert Camus leads the reader to an online biography created by the European Graduate School, the link to which is broken and for which a search on the larger site produced no results.

With so many other comprehensive reference works on Africa available to libraries, including Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Kwame Anthony Appiah’s Encyclopedia of Africa (Oxford University Press 2010) or John Middleton’s older benchmark title Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara (Scribner, 1997) this encyclopedia is recommended primarily to school or public librarians with a corresponding curricular or programmatic focus.—Kristin J. Henrich, Reference and Instruction Librarian, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho