Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses East European Africanist scholarship and its legitimacy as marginal, non-colonial.In contrast to West Eur.Afr.Studies. It shows that the former perspective is useful for a critical look at hitherto dominant paternalistic style of Afr.Studies in Europe.

Paper long abstract:

African Studies in the countries, which were under communist rule and today are known as post-communist, have developed interest in Africa in dependence on state ideological, political and economic interests. There has been a gradual shift from ideology to economy while the study of African politics seems to follow the vagaries of influence Africa exerts on the world scene. Academic research on Africa in the eastern Europe has long tradition which went largely unnoticed in western Europe. Characteristically, AEGIS does not include a single centre or association based in post-communist Europe even though in countries such as Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary Africanist research currently experiences a considerable growth. This reflects both the hegemony of Western Europe with its strong colonial and neo-colonial emphases and the weak official interest post-communist Europe shows for Africa. The paper will describe the changing accents of eastern European Africanist scholarship and discuss the question of legitimacy of marginal but non-colonial approach to African studies. In contrasting the western European African Studies with eastern European approaches it will show that the latter perspective is useful for a critical look at hitherto dominant paternalistic style of African Studies in Europe.