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Àyàn Àgalú, the man believed to be the rst Yorùbá drummer, is regarded as deity, spirit, and ancestor (Euba 1990: 90; Omojola 2012: 16). is tripartite characterization highlights the multiple resonances of Àyàn Àgalú’s identity. For some people, he exists as a religious deity, while for many others, he represents an ancestral spirit believed to reside in their drums. Most traditional Yorùbá drummers, however, regard Àyàn Àgalú (or Àyàn) as their progenitor, and view their biological connection to him as validation of their calling as a drummer. e multifocal representation of Àyàn’s identity speaks to the dynamic ways in which worshippers, musicians, and even scholars have interpreted his attributes in speci c cultural and historical contexts and according to their interests. Multidimensionality is indeed an axiomatic feature of Àyàn’s identity. It lays the foundation for (and indeed is predictive of) the diverse and processual ways in which individuals and groups who encounter or associate with him—whether in the realm of religious experience, musical performance or scholarly enterprise—de ne and con gure their relationships to him. e multiple resonances of Àyàn’s identity provide an important background for understanding an important quality of this book. In di erent ways—ethnographic, analytic, and historiographic—various contributors problematize what it means to embrace and follow Àyàn. e book, which has eleven chapters, a preface (by J.D.Y. Peel), and an extended introduction, focuses on the role and status of the Yorùbá deity of drumming in Western Nigeria and the African diaspora. Its thematic coverage is wide. It includes cosmology, historiography, identity, gender, and secondary diaspora. As explained by the editor, Amanda Villepastour, the book examines the link between the “African [Yorùbá] Àyàn and its Cuban version, Añá,” a topic which she says yearns for an “accurate or comprehensive treatment” (p. 11). In her introduction, Villepastour lays out the key themes and arguments of the book. She discusses the core attributes of Àyàn, “the god of drumming” whose music is “both a form of worship and a medium to facilitate the worshipping gestures of others” (p. 13). Although Àyàn is not one of the major Yorùbá Òrìṣà, its Cuban version, Añá, is embraced as a “drum-god tradition” and a vital component of the Lucumí Santeria religion. Practitioners of Añá are also found in countries like Brazil, the United States, and Venezuela. In explaining the wider signi cance of Àyàn/Añá, Villepastour explains that the spread of Yorùbá culture and religious practices around the world is indeed tied to the strong presence of Òrìṣà religion in African diaspora societies. Scholarly interest in Òrìṣà has also helped to foster the visibility of Yorùbá-based religious and spiritual practices globally. Villepastour also discusses the challenge of reconstructing the history of Añá in places like Cuba and the need to contextualize the competing narratives that mark the practice and perception of the deity, especially those relating to gender attributes and religious signi cance. e chapters of the book develop these opening observations in many interesting and productive ways. Comparatist perspectives, for example, are provided by Akinsola Akinwowo and David Font-Navarrete, who in the opening chapter emphasize the similarities between Àyàn and Añá, observing that Yorùbá and Cuban practices outline a “continuum of devotional strategies and modes” (p. 35). Recalling the work of Ademola Adegbite (1998), these two authors explain how in both societies Àyàn practices serve to solidify the links between human, ancestral, and spiritual domains of existence in a manner consistent with Yorùbá cosmological thought. Villepastour’s contribution in chapter 5 discusses the complex, diverse, and dynamic ways in which Àyàn is anthropomorphized while, in chapter 7, Kenneth Schweitzer discusses how members of the Añá cult have been able to sustain and transmit Añá religious and musical practices despite the repressive policies of the Catholic institution in Cuba. In addition to the work of scholars, the book draws e ectively on the experiences of musicians and devotees. Chapter 3, for example, presents a personal narrative by John Àyánṣọolá Abiodun Ogunleye, a prominent Yorùbá drummer based in Ijebu-Remo in Western Nigeria. He discusses the role of drummers and provides an interesting account of Àyàn mythology. John Amira, in chapter 9, Akan communities in Ghana, their Mamluk identity lost over time and replaced with deep local signi cance, while the seventh was found in an elite burial site in Durbi Takusheyi, Nigeria, which archaeologists date to the eenth century. e volume’s nal essay, by Gayla Ben-Arieh, brings patterns of movement across the Sahara into the present day and shi s the focus from material to human mobility. Evoking the maps of medieval trade routes, polities, and regions inside the front and back covers, a map of current migration routes from West Africa to Europe testi es to the continued resonance of Saharan crossings. e lived reality and the public perception of these modern journeys are profoundly informed by current economic, political, and public health conditions increasingly entangled at a global level. In her introduction, Berzock writes, “our contemporary moment is de ned by a rise in global connectivity, as well as by entrenched ideas about di erence” (p. 23). I might add that this moment is further characterized by a growing discomfort with global connectivity and its perceived disregard for and even erasure of national borders and local identities. I write this review from Italy, where concerns about EU immigration policies, border security, and economic stagnation fuel anxieties about African migration, represented by politicians and the press as both arising from and giving rise to poverty and violence. Making visible an informed representation of West Africa and its critical role in the medieval world, but also beyond, seems especially urgent. In a recent essay, Kimberley Anne Coles, Kim F. Hall, and Ayanna ompson assert that if the study of preand early modern history is to survive and thrive, scholars have “an ethical imperative to equip our students to understand and engage critically with the world as it is” (Coles et al. 2019). Caravans of Gold answers this call to action by challenging the historic conceptualization of West Africa, as it has been constructed over centuries by “the West,” o ering instead a narrative with vivid images built from the incomplete but potent material remains of the region itself.