AHP HANDBOOK OF INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

What is Pan-African Intellectual History?

Pan-African Intellectual History is the study of the intellectual productions of the Pan-African World. It is concerned with the ideas that manifest within, and are the products of, the Pan-African World, being the intellectual space comprising ideas generated within the African-Modern Intellectual Tradition of the 18^th century to the present day. 

Because of the political nature of the definition of the “Pan-African World”, Pan-African Intellectual History focusses primarily on the political thought generated in the defence of African intellectual traditions, productions, and knowledge-producers. 

Pan-African Intellectual History is distinct from African Intellectual History as the latter concerns itself with the entirety of the intellectual productions of African peoples, from antiquity to the present day. It is generally associated with continental intellectual productions or the intellectual productions of members of the new African diaspora in Europe and North America from the last 20^th century onwards.

Pan-African Intellectual History is also distinct from Black Intellectual History, which is usually used as a synonym for African-American Intellectual History. Sometimes it is used more widely to refer to the intellectual productions of the entirety of the diaspora in the western hemisphere. It is rarely used in reference to intellectual productions with origins on the continent, other than in places of significant racialisation, such as South Africa. 

Cite this article:
Umolu, Apeike. “Pan-African Intellectual History”. AHP Handbook of Intellectual History. 2022.