In Western public opinion, in Europe and especially America, the dominant narrative about Africa is one-dimensional: it is a continent generally regarded as synonymous with extreme poverty, economic backwardness, a hotspot for diseases such as AIDS and Ebola that threaten the entire planet, political violence, and civil wars. "Black" Africa is the convenient counterpart that confirms, as a diametrical opposite, the superiority and self-satisfaction of the West. This narrative, partly a remnant of a colonial mindset, is primarily based on ignorance and the uncritical reproduction of stereotypes by the global mass media.

With his introductory study, Professor of African Studies Eustace Palmer, originally from Sierra Leone, attempts to refute this one-dimensional narrative by composing a comprehensive "encyclopedic" panorama of the largely unknown continent: he surveys Africa's physical geography, its complex history up to the 21st century — giving particular emphasis to the period of European imperial expansion, colonialism, and independence — describes its political and social systems, analyzes the economy, environmental and health issues, education, religion, art, and literature. His accessible and comprehensible treatment, without idealizations or embellishments, helps the reader become familiar with Africa’s past and present, highlighting a complex and dynamic world that now claims its own distinct role in the multipolar world of the 21st century.