{"product_id":"2940015846942","title":"PEOPLE OF AFRICA","description":"I\u003cbr\u003e                             -----------\u003cbr\u003e                             INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this book we are going to read about some of the other people who\u003cbr\u003elive in our own great country--Africa.  Africa is very, very large, so\u003cbr\u003ebig that no one would be able to go to all the places in it.  But\u003cbr\u003edifferent people have been to different parts, and have told what they\u003cbr\u003esaw where they went.  Wherever our home in Africa may be, if we walked\u003cbr\u003etowards the sunrise--that is, towards the east--day after day, at last\u003cbr\u003ewe should reach the great salt sea.  Again, if we walked towards the\u003cbr\u003esunset in the west, we should at last get to the sea.  To the north,\u003cbr\u003eagain, is the sea, and to the south, the sea.  Whichever way we\u003cbr\u003ewalked, at last, after many months, we should be stopped by the sea.\u003cbr\u003eBut on our journey we should have met many different kinds of people,\u003cbr\u003eand have seen many different customs.  In some places there would be\u003cbr\u003erivers, in some mountains, in some deserts, with no trees or grass to\u003cbr\u003ebe seen.  In these, people must make their homes in many ways, and\u003cbr\u003ehave many kinds of food and clothes.  Because we live in Africa, we\u003cbr\u003ewant to know about Africa and the people in it.  They are men and\u003cbr\u003ewomen and children like ourselves, though the colour of their skins\u003cbr\u003emay be lighter or darker than ours, and their languages quite\u003cbr\u003edifferent.  But they, too, build houses and eat food and wear some\u003cbr\u003ekind of dress, and it is interesting to know about their customs.  So\u003cbr\u003ein this book we shall read about some of them and of how they live;\u003cbr\u003eand, to help us to understand, we shall find with each part a picture\u003cbr\u003eof the people we are reading about.  All the time we must remember\u003cbr\u003ethat we could get to see them for ourselves if we were strong enough\u003cbr\u003eto walk so far, because they are all our own brothers and sisters in\u003cbr\u003eAfrica.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong ago most African peoples were shut off from the other people of\u003cbr\u003ethe world by the sea and the great sandy desert.  Only the people of\u003cbr\u003eEgypt could meet and learn from the people of Europe and Asia.  So\u003cbr\u003ewhile the Egyptians grew wise and clever, all the other Africans,\u003cbr\u003esouth of the desert, knew nothing except what they had learnt by\u003cbr\u003ethemselves.  Then Arabs began to cross the desert to get gold and\u003cbr\u003eslaves from the dark-skinned Africans.  These Arabs taught them a\u003cbr\u003elittle.  But, later still, Europeans began to come in great ships over\u003cbr\u003ethe sea.  These came at first like the Arabs to trade, and afterwards\u003cbr\u003ebegan to plant great fields of cotton and tobacco, which will not grow\u003cbr\u003ein their own lands.  But they found the dark-skinned Africans were\u003cbr\u003estill ignorant, and afraid of people of other races.  They were always\u003cbr\u003efighting among themselves, and no one could settle among them until\u003cbr\u003ethere was peace and safety.  At last the European nations made\u003cbr\u003eagreements with the chiefs, so that now in nearly every part of Africa\u003cbr\u003ethere is a European governor to prevent wars and fighting.  Thus in\u003cbr\u003eNorth Africa the governors are sent by France, in the Congo lands by\u003cbr\u003eBelgium, in East Africa by England, in some other parts by Portugal.\u003cbr\u003eThese are different European nations who send men to keep peace, and\u003cbr\u003eto make it possible to carry on trade.  Of course, the coming of the\u003cbr\u003eEuropeans has made great changes in the lives of the Africans.  In the\u003cbr\u003eold times all the men were busy fighting, and often whole villages of\u003cbr\u003epeople were killed or made slaves.  Now there is no fighting, but\u003cbr\u003ethere is more need to work than before.  There are more people, and\u003cbr\u003eless land for each family.  Europeans want workmen to help on their\u003cbr\u003egreat fields.  The Africans want many things now, which they did not\u003cbr\u003eknow about before, and they must have money to buy them.  So work for\u003cbr\u003emoney has taken the place of fighting.  Again, in some ways the\u003cbr\u003eEuropeans, enforcing peace and making many quick ways of travel, such\u003cbr\u003eas good roads and bridges, have helped to weaken the power of the\u003cbr\u003echiefs.  Nobody likes changes to come, and the old people are always\u003cbr\u003esorry when their children begin new customs; but on the whole it is\u003cbr\u003egood for Africans that other nations came to their country, because\u003cbr\u003ethey have brought peace in the place of war, and safety and freedom\u003cbr\u003einstead of the old fear of death or slavery.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182037025008,"sku":"2940015846942","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015846942","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}