What is the magic among the Azande of South Sudan? How are the narratives of cannibals and zombies that we encounter in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa today connected to the traumatic experiences of slavery and colonialism? Why do the inhabitants of the Grassfields in western Cameroon worship their deceased relatives and how has Christianity influenced the beliefs and practices of ancestor worship? What are the beliefs and practices of vendetta among the Nuer of Sudan and how have colonialism and prolonged post-colonial civil conflicts changed them? How have the economies of West Africa been affected by the penetration of Western money and what do the stories of witchcraft tell us about capitalism? How was the diasporic identity of the Yoruba in Nigeria formed? How did the evangelists attempt to impose Protestant ethics on the Tswana of South Africa and what resistance did they encounter?

The book critically discusses some of the most pivotal studies that have attempted to answer the above questions and are considered landmarks in anthropological research of Sub-Saharan Africa and the science of social anthropology in general. Emphasizing ethnographic description, it follows the thread that connects ethnography with interpretation and gradually introduces the reader to concepts and analytical categories of social anthropology through specific ethnographic examples. However, it is not limited to a specific reading audience, but addresses more broadly those who wish to discover Africa through its anthropologies.