Part 1 The work and the setting: African history, ironworking and the mystique of the blacksmith; iron production in central Africa - building a craft tradition, ca 600 BCE to 1920. Part 2 Social and econoic values of ironworking - regional patterns: smelting iron - fathers of the furnace; making and changing money - iron currencies; the work of the finishing forge. Part 3 Social and economic values of ironworking - localhistories: patronage and innovation in the Kubu kingdom; markets for prestige along the middle Zaire. Part 4 Ironworkers in west central African society: the blacksmith's mystique unveiled - ideology, identity and the social prominence of blacksmiths. Epilogue - colonial rule and the decline of a craft tradition.
