Tributors, supporters, and merchant capital

the long version

A number of scholars in African studies have recently begun to produce interdisciplinary works which go beyond the constraints of 'traditional' anthropology, narrative political history and political science. This new generation of scholars has sidestepped the ideological debates which characterised much of the work in African studies in the 1970s and early 1980s. They have chosen to focus instead on the meaning of democracy, law, civil society, human rights, ethnicity, class and gender relations in given African societies. Many of these scholars are Africans who have studied in the West, but who have carried out field and archival research in their countries of origin. Consequently, in a number of instances, their studies represent the first analysis of their societies by indigenous scholars who have benefited from exposure to external perspectives. As with most academic monographs, many of the books will be adaptations of PhD theses. They are, however, written in a manner to appeal to a more general readership as well as to specialists.