Originally published in 1939 as a counterpoint to the myopic, Eurocentric narrative of African history popular in the West at the time, Carter G. Woodson's African Heroes and Heroines delves into the rich and complex political, military, and economic history of the African continent with the objective eye of a scientific observer. Intended for upper level high-school students, Woodson presents a fair biographical treatment of African leaders through history as figures of equal - if not greater - intelligence, prowess, and strength as the heroic leaders canonized in the histories of other races. While the popular histories of Africa in America had represented Africans as disorganized, unenlightened, and docile, Woodson paints a far more realistic picture of a people who were fiercely resistant to Western imperialism and occupation. Through individual portraits of figures like the Mbundu's Queen Anna Nzinga, Shaka of the Zulu Kingdom, or King Béhanzin of Dahomey, Woodson's work, alongside that of other notable scholars, helped mainstream America move toward a deeper and more complex under