More than an anthropology of Africa or an anthropology by Africans, African anthropology represents a dynamic, contested, and, above all, generative site. Upon this site, European, American, and African social relations have been produced and rehearsed, colonial and postcolonial governmentalites molded, and the contours of the African postcolony drawn. Although African anthropology is characterized by marked changes over the past century, a definite coherence can be read from the growth of its institutions and the problems defining the core of its knowledges. Considering the breadth of the topic and the limited space for development, this entry will focus on the field of African sociocultural anthropology.
The Early Years of Anthropology and the Thematics of Conversion. In The Invention of Africa, V. Y. Mudimbe questions the often taken for granted divide between missionary interpretations of Africa and the interpretations of Africa held by early anthropologists He insists that the ...