The decolonization of knowledge is a crucial step in ensuring that Africans worldwide retake control of their own destinies and histories. In the late 1950s and 1960s a new wave of scholarship began to emerge on the continent, as many African universities that had been appendages of European educational institutions became autonomous and developed vibrant history departments. The success of African nationalism during the 1960s consolidated the place of African history in African institutions and allowed them to adopt an even more important role in the development of African historiography. Later a new generation of African historians who were inspired by a variety of liberal and Marxist theories of political economy launched fierce criticisms of the pioneering scholars. Today the central question is again about epistemology. Modern African historians must also confront the challenge of globalization (the modern imperialism), which is reshaping the international economy as well as the intellectual map of the world. This article was originally presented as the Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola Lecture at the African Studies Association’s 51st Annual Meeting, November 15, 2008, Chicago. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
