Enter the Time Machine With These Books About Precolonial Life

The city of Cuzco in southeastern Peru was once the capital of the Incan Empire. It’s one of the few precolonial cities we can see evidence of even now, with colonial construction built on top of the Incan bases. Schreffler charts the history of Cuzco through the architecture, tracking the stone walls and plazas of the Incans to the columns and cathedrals of the Spanish. His work shows the distinct change brought by colonization and offers a glimpse into the past — and what could have been.  

This is a children’s novel which explores the ancient Edo kingdom of Benin. Ada lives with Papa Eze, working with him to heal villagers when they fall unwell. When her father himself falls sick, he tells Ada about her real heritage, leading her into the forest to learn about the ancient Edo kingdom of Benin. This is a transporting novel which aims to teach the basics about the Benin Bronzes and West African history.

Amelia is the daughter of King Gbèhanzin of Dahomè, who faces conflict as the kingdom prepares for potential war with the French. As her family secrets emerge, Amelia finds herself on the run to Nigeria. Campbell-Fatoki takes an interesting view here, and rather than romanticize the time, she considers the darker aspects of pre-colonial Benin. I really enjoyed this coming-of-age novel in a world I didn’t know enough about.

In modern day Illinois, the Native American city of Cahokia sat on the Mississippi. At the heart of the Mississippian culture, the city was an advanced society more than a millennium before European contact. Pauketat’s work used archaeology to shine a light on history: the feasts that fed thousands, the celestial clocks, the copper workshop. I’m no archaeologist, but this book made it seem incredible.

Pre-Columbus, the Americas weren’t a sparsely settled wilderness. Rather, Native people actively integrated with the land around them. Tenochtitlan had running water and clean streets. The Olmec civilization rose with the agricultural development of maize. Mann critically assesses history and reaches the conclusion that Native Americans were key to the survival of many species on the continent.  

Relatively speaking, we don’t know much about the cities and civilisations which occupied southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. Remote and inaccessible, research on the topic is very recent. This book explores daily life in Nubian cities, including explorations of burial rites, art, architecture, text and writing. It’s a goldmine of information, and beautifully illustrated.

Cicero called Herodotus ‘The Father of History’, which is lofty indeed. Herodotus’ Histories cover the lives of major kings and famous battles — but instead of basic narrative fact, the Histories build in cultural, geographical and ethnographical information. It makes the Histories a behemoth of information, a story of kings and wars set against a backdrop of real cultural understanding — as you’d expect, since Herodotus wrote what he saw and what he heard.  

Each chapter of this fascinating book follows one of 24 citizens in AD 17 during the Han dynasty. We look into the lives of midwives, soldiers, priests, and blacksmiths, seeing inside a world with some familiar problems: how to earn enough to keep your family going and, perhaps less familiar, how to prevent conflict with the Huns. I really enjoyed this peek inside Guanzhong, one of the most developed regions of the empire at the time.

A millennium ago, a young Japanese girl journeyed to Kyoto. She started a diary that would last for decades. A writer and reader, mother and wife, her narrative considers romance and faith, and what the meaning of life might be. The author carefully edited the text, anticipating the potential fame of an audience, making this a poetic masterpiece spanning forty years.

This is a fiction retelling of the rise and fall of Shaka, the Zulu emperor. First submitted to the publisher in 1910, it’s a fascinating read, and deliberately eschews historical fact in favor of myth and folkloric approaches. Far from being placed on a pedestal, Shaka is excoriated. Yes he is handsome, proud and loaded with military prowess — but also cruel, violent and bent on power. It’s an electrifying read, viewing a controversial leader through a non-European lens.   

Much like Chaka, Kintu is a fictional take, this time on Baganda history. The story focuses on a generational curse, as well as sexism and mythology. Though the story runs from 1754 to the present day, the sections in the 1700s present a view of precolonial Buganda, blended through oral tradition, myth and history. Kintu has long been a favorite, rich and deeply compelling.