Research on Africa’s History and Development—A Review

Over the years we have seen many different approaches—both methodological and theoretical—to analyze and understand Africa’s history. As we would expect in a vibrant academic community, there has been many scholarly disputes and debates. In this chapter, Hillbom and Green summarise general trends in the professional history writing of Africa’s past from the early twentieth century onwards. They show that while the study of the continent’s past has progressed, it would be wrong to see this as a linear process. The discipline has consistently developed as a reaction to the work of previous generations of scholars, but also positioned itself in relation to dominant political thinking both within and outside the African continent.