At the important forum for debate of the current state of African-American relations provided by the African-American Institute meetings in Harare, Zimbabwe, in January 1983, two apparently contradictory themes emerged in the public and private assessments of American-African by the delegates. On the one hand, they observed-to their disappointment and dismay-that American appeared to remain essentially unchanged over the last quarter-century. On the other, and in the next breath, they angrily denounced the theory of constructive engagement in southern Africa, and in particular its corollary of linkage of Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola to South acquiescence in a Namibia settlement. Is it possible that Chester Crocker is simply Richard Moose by another name? Senator Jesse Helms evidently thinks so, but should we? Or, to put the matter more graphically, is it plausible that, despite the apparent rhetorical contrasts, United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick holds essentially the same views concerning Africa as did her predecessors Andrew Young and Donald McHenry? Perhaps this is a timely moment to explore this seeming paradox. Within the foreign machinery of the United States government, Africa was accorded bureaucratic recognition in 1958, a quarter-century ago, through the creation of the Bureau of Affairs. This organizational innovation symbolized the birth of an policy, even though episodic connections with sundry states extend far back to the early days of the Republic: Liberia, Morocco, Zanzibar, Egypt, Ethiopia. Still, there was then no notion that these formed a whole, which might be dignified with the label of African policy. Despite the fact that diplomatic relations are carried out with individual states and not a continent collectively, from 1958 on the notion that there was-for better or worse-an African policy entered conventional discourse. Nine persons have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Affairs,' each presumably seeking to imprint some overall logic to his sphere. While the Bureau has never included all states, and since 1974 the entire Arab tier in northern Africa has been transferred to the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, this anniversary can serve as a ritual moment for reflection. Beyond the peculiar symbolic significance attached to a 25th anniversary, enobled as a silver occasion, there is a quarter-century of accumulated experience, an adequate base for identifying the elements of continuity and change in American-African policies.2