This book discusses how Africa has been understood and defined across various academic fields. Building on the influential works of Valentin-Yves Mudimbe and more recent studies by Axel Fleisch and Rhiannon Stephens, this book bridges previous limitations by offering a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis.

Each chapter examines the conceptualization of Africa within a specific discipline, balancing local and global perspectives, blending competing viewpoints, and providing suggestions for future research.

The book will be essential for students, scholars, and researchers interested in a better understanding of the diverse and complex narratives that shape our knowledge of Africa and its intellectual heritage.

Autorentext

Abdul Karim Bangura holds five PhDs in political science, development economics, linguistics, computer science, and mathematics. He is a researcher-in-residence of Abrahamic Connections and Islamic Peace Studies at American University's Center for Global Peace, Washington DC, USA. He is the author and editor of 106 books and the author of 709 scholarly articles. Many of these works have won eminent awards, in addition to more than 50 other distinguished national and international awards. He has served as President and then Ambassador to the United Nations for the Association of Third World Studies. He is now the President of the African Studies and Research Forum, and is fluent in a dozen African and six European languages.

JP Afamefuna Ifedi lectures in Political Science at Howard University in Washington DC, USA. Ifedi has published in various scholarly peer-reviewed journals and participated in election monitoring and democracy development in Bosnia-i-Herzegovina under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United States Department of State. He directs the Council on African World Affairs, an organization dedicated to educating the public on African world issues. He holds a PhD from Howard University, and he completed a post-doctoral degree in political economy as an Institute for British and Irish Studies Summer Fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford, UK, and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.