Africans: The History of a Continent is a good book. It gives a condensed history of Africa in a mere 300 pages. Thus it is packed with information and analysis.
One downside of this book is the author’s dry style which is common in a lot of academic texts. That combined with the densely packed information meant that it took me a long while to read it.
While Africa: The Biography of the Continent was a popular read with an easy-going style, Africans focuses more on data and analysis. Overall, I would say I learned more from Africans.
I would recommend this book along with Transformations in Slavery as essential reading to get an idea of African history.