African history and global studies: A view from South Africa

Abstract

Recent debates on global and world history have largely been shaped in the Euro-American academy, an arrangement that appears to deepen the growing divide between metropolitan and African universities. This article takes a more optimistic view arguing that twenty years of post-apartheid life has enabled a freer flow of people and ideas across the continent. These new networks have sparked projects that explore inter-regional exchanges and transnational circuits within the continent. These developments coincide with the ‘rise of the south’ and present an opportunity for new styles of world history that take the global south as their matrix. This article examines a range of such projects and draws out their wider significance.