LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Sudanese-British television and radio journalist Zeinab Badawi has announced that her first book, An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Civilization to Independence, is set to be released on 18 April 2024.
She revealed the cover of the book on 30 October 2023 and said, ‘For too long Africa’s history has been neglected.
I am thrilled to reveal the beautiful cover of my new book, An African History of Africa. I’ve had a great experience writing it and I can’t wait to share it with you all.’
Badawi also announced that the book is available to pre-order now at WHSmith, Amazon, Blackwells, Bookshop.org, Foyles, Hive and Waterstones.
The summary of the book on Penguin Publishing Group reads, ‘For too long, Africa’s history has been neglected.
Dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, its past has been fragmented, overlooked and denied its rightful place in our global story.
Now, Zeinab Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history, from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires with powerful queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence.
Seeking out occluded histories from across the continent, meeting with countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, and travelling through more than thirty countries, Badawi weaves together a fascinating new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves.’
The German edition of the book – Eine afrikanische Geschichte Afrikas: Vom Ursprung der Zivilisation bis zur Unabhängigkeit – will also be available on 3 May 2024.
The book will be available in hardcopy, audible audiobook and ebook.
Throughout her career, Badawi has widely covered Africa and African history, including her home country, Sudan.
In an exclusive interview on BBC’s HARDtalk in 2009, Badawi interviewed Sudan’s Former President Omar Al Bashir, who at the time was the first serving head of state to be charged with war crimes.
In 2011, Badawi was awarded an honorary doctorate by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). In 2017, Badawi hosted a major 20-part TV series, The History of Africa, based on UNESCO’s General History of Africa.
Produced and presented for BBC World News through her own production company, Kush Communications, the documentary series was broadcast in July and August 2017 on BBC World News.
In addition, she was Chair of the Royal African Society (RAS) from 2014 to 2021. Badawi is founder and chair of the Africa Medical Partnership Fund (AfriMed), a charity that aims to help local medical professionals in Africa.
Born in 1959, Badawi studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University and for an MA in history (awarded with a distinction) at SOAS, London University.
Badawi was the first presenter of the ITV Morning News (later known as ITV News at 5:30), and co-presented Channel 4 News with Jon Snow from 1989 to 1998), before joining BBC News.
Badawi was the presenter of World News Today broadcast on both BBC Four and BBC World News, and Reporters, a weekly showcase of reports from the BBC. In 2021, Badawi was appointed as president of SOAS University of London.
She is an acclaimed journalist and has received many awards and accolades throughout her career. In 2009, Badawi was named International TV Personality of the Year in the Annual Media Awards, the international media excellence awards organised by the Association for International Broadcasting.
In 2018, she was awarded the President’s Medal of the British Academy for her contributions to international political journalism.
Badawi has four children. She is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist, currently the presenter of Global Questions and Hard Talk for the BBC.
The name Badawi simply means “of the desert.” From a personal name based on Arabic badawī ‘of the desert’ or from an ethnic name for a bedouin of the same origin. Bearers of this surname are both Muslims and Christians.
Badawi was born in October 1959 in Khartoum, Sudan, and has lived in Britain since the age of two. Her great-grandfather, Sheikh Babiker Badri, fought against Kitchener’s British forces at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and pioneered women’s education in Sudan.
Badawi’s father, Mohammed-Khair El Badawi, was a newspaper editor in Sudan committed to social reform who, when the family moved to the UK, joined the BBC’s Arabic Service. Badawi is bilingual and speaks both Arabic and English fluently.
Badawi was educated at Hornsey High School for Girls in North London, before studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at St Hilda’s College, Oxford.
At Oxford, Badawi was a member of the Oxford University Broadcasting Society.
In 1988, she moved back to London to pursue a full-time one-year MA degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in Politics and Anthropology of the Middle East (her professors were P. J. Vatikiotis for politics, Malcolm Yapp for history and Richard Tapper and Nancy Tapper for anthropology), graduating with distinction in 1989.
