Abstract
African and African-American intellectuals long sought to counter primitivizing ideologies of their times by pointing to narratives of African state building. The real breakthrough in writing African history occurred as colonial rule was crumbling and the quest for a usable past – notably a usable national past – attracted young scholars in Africa and beyond. If the 1960s witnessed an emphasis on the particularity of African societies, disillusionment with Africa's present brought about a wider consideration of its past, especially the ways the slave trade and colonization constrained the continent's possibilities. Scholars attempt to document varied forms of imagination and communication, of networks and institutions, in different temporal and spatial frameworks.
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