"The Chart of African History, so lately bare and empty and misleading as the maps once were, begins to glow with illuminating detail. To diminish the human achievement in continental Africa, the great civilization of the Nile Valley has been disconnected from the inland, then deprieved from her worldclass diaspora. The rediscovery of Africa goes indeed toward the recognition of the essential unity of the peoples of Africa through their diversity and also with the peoples of the rest of the world. The "lost islands" of African humanity in and out of Africa are joining the mainstream... Historical discovery is now proving that the development and growth of society and civilization in Africa really contradicts all the stereotypes.

(The Lost Cities of Africa- Paraphrasing David Basilson's introduction).