African history in ten seconds: New and improved!
Posted By Rav Casley Gera On August 23, 2007 @ 9:06 pm In Useful sources | 5 Comments
This is becoming a wonderful, ever-growing saga, like The Land Before Time, although I think that ended after episode five, or Rocky, which I suppose will only end with Sylvester Stallone’s death. Having put together a spreadsheet detailing the history of African governance since independence, my friend John kindly put together [1] a chart summarising the transition between governance classes over time. It was, bluntly, a hit, with several blogs around the world linking to it. Which was great!
Now John and my friend [2] Pete have collaborated on this latest version. Like the previous, it shows the transition from colonialism to, in many cases, despotism, and more recently towards democracy. But now it’s weighted by population, so you can see just what proportion of the African population lived under each form of government at any one time. You can see a bigger version if you click through.
[3] 
Want to see how it’s made, or play with the data yourself? Here’s [4] the spreadsheet, and you can also get a detailed history spreadsheet from [5] the original post.
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Article printed from African Development for the Completely Bloody Ignorant: http://brasstacks.org.uk/africa
URL to article: http://brasstacks.org.uk/africa/blog/2007/08/23/african-history-in-ten-seconds-new-and-improved/
URLs in this post:
[1] a chart summarising the transition between governance classes over time: http://brasstacks.org.uk/africa/blog/2007/06/28/african-history-in-ten-seconds/
[2] Pete: http://www.blogger.com/profile/12439371265636746767
[3] Image: http://brasstacks.org.uk/africa/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/governancebypopulation.GIF
[4] the spreadsheet: http://brasstacks.org.uk/africa/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/population-chart.xls
[5] the original post: http://brasstacks.org.uk/africa/blog/2007/04/09/african-history-in-ten-minutes/
[6] : http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=3
Click here to print.
5 Comments To "African history in ten seconds: New and improved!"
#1 Comment By Pablo H On August 23, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
Nice. But what is the source for the classifications? Meredith’s book?
#2 Comment By Rav Casley Gera On August 23, 2007 @ 9:24 pm
A not-entirely scientific assessment based on various history sources. Including, I admit for full disclosure, Wikipedia. Some of the calls were tricky, particularly whether elections were significantly disputed; pretty much every election in Africa is disputed by someone, or at least it seems so.
I’d welcome any comments on the judgement calls, if anyone has any time on their hands… the original spreadsheet can be found at [5] . Cheers Pablo!
#3 Pingback By The long walk to freedom « the spike On August 23, 2007 @ 10:24 pm
[...] Instead of just detailing the history of government in Africa by country, the new and improved African History in Ten Seconds chart is weighted by population, to show the proportion of Africans living under various forms of [...]
#4 Comment By Rav Casley Gera On August 23, 2007 @ 10:29 pm
Oh and if anyone’s wondering, the population stats are from the [6] .
#5 Comment By Jürgen Nagler On August 24, 2007 @ 7:40 pm
Thanks! Well done and I am thankful for some positive news on Africa. Will cross-post.
What about socio-economic graphs next?
Cheers! Juergen