Introduction / B.A. Ogot and J.A. Kieran -- The historian in East Africa / J.A. Kieran -- The geography of East Africa / F.F. Ojany -- The prehistory of East Africa / M. Posnansky -- The settlement of East Africa / J.E.G. Sutton -- The coast before the arrival of the Portuguese / N. Chittick -- The coast from the Portuguese invasion / F.J. Berg -- The river-lake Nilotes from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century / D.W. Cohen -- Cushites and the highland and plains Nilotes / C. Ehret -- The western Bantu peoples from A.D. 1300 to 1800 / G.S. Were -- The eastern Bantu peoples / B.G. McIntosh -- The Arab impact / N.R. Bennett -- The nineteenth century: prelude to colonialism / E.A. Alpers -- Kenya under the British, 1895 to 1963 / B.A. Ogot -- Tanzania under German and British rule / J. Lliffe -- Uganda under the British / M.S.M. Kiwanuka -- Economic and social developments before independence / C. Ehrlich -- Independent East Africa / A.A. Mazrui -- Contemporary economic and social developments / D.P. Ghai.