Howdy, I am currently teaching an interdisciplinary freshman introductory
course entitled "civilizations East and West" here at Appalachian State
University. For the pre-colonial African section I used (for the first
time) Basil Davidson's _African_Genius_. I found it quite useful,
especially with other outside sources. More importantly it was one of
the few books that the students enjoyed and actually completed.
Good luck.