A richly textured long-term history of precolonial Nigeria, from the foundations of the agricultural communities to the revolutionary transformations of the 19th century. Arranged in 25 chapters, all products of new research, which cover wide-ranging topics on the complex economic, political and sociocultural transformations in one of the most important regions in Africa. A new look at the historiography of precolonist Nigeria dedicated to distinguished scholar and teacher Toyin Falola.