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The period of colonial rule in Africa came late and did not last very long. Africa was conquered by European imperial powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the 1960s, it was mostly over. ‘Colonialism in Africa’ considers how this period shaped African history. For some Africans, colonial rule was threatening; for others, an opportunity. Reconstructing the complicated patterns of this time is a massive challenge for historians of Africa. Interest in Africa' colonial past has waxed and waned, and resurged recently. Colonialism was not just about the actions of the Europeans, it was also about the actions of the Africans and what they thought. ...Less

The notion of African history is only just over half a century old. Before then there was little or no scholarly engagement in the history of the continent. ‘Memory and forgetting, past and present’ summarizes how the tradition of studying African history came about and considers current developments. Where is the field heading? Historians of Africa need to take heed not to impose their own way of seeing the world on different cultures and other past times. This is true for both Africans and non-Africans. Is African history still relevant? The answer must be yes. Current crises in Africa make an understanding of how it got to where it is today vitally important. ...Less

The 1950s and 1960s saw dramatic change in Africa. By the mid-1950s, all of North Africa except Algeria was independent and by the mid-1960s most of tropical Africa had followed. ‘Imagining the future, rebuilding the past’ charts this period in African history and shows how this period also saw the emergence of African history as an academic discipline. Why did the European-ruled colonial empires collapse? Was this inevitable? During this climate of vast social change, rising expectations, and political struggle, interest in scholarly research into Africa's fascinating history soured. The process of reducing the legacy of colonial historiography would be long and arduous, and much contested. ...Less