Paper short abstract:

In the current state of African Studies there is a strong tendency to marginalize early, "pre-colonial", History of Africa in favor of a presentist approach of African contemporary challenges. Historicity and the return to early History should be a priority within the field.

Paper long abstract:

History is one of the pillars of African Studies since the foundation of this interdisciplinary area study. However, in recent years, this status of History within the field is not so clear. We examine two contrasting examples: the programs of the two major conferences on African Studies organised in Europe and the United States. Is it a general trend or a regional specificity? The place of History is unbalanced in the two cases but in both, though in different ways, there is a strong tendency to marginalize the early, "pre-colonial", History of Africa in favor of a presentist approach of African contemporary challenges.

In the second part of this paper we argue that historicity is indispensable to surpass the danger African Studies face of being subsumed as an area study field within Global Studies. The return to the History of early Africa should be a priority within the field. It puts supposed general and irreversible globalizing movements in perspective. A historicization of contexts and of concrete life experiences is needed to identify the different scales of connection, of web-like relations within Africa, its diasporas or elsewhere.