Unmaking Africa—the Humanities and the Study of What?

Abstract

This essay addresses what I take to be a paradox in Africa’s constitution as a scholarly object of inquiry. The study of Africa renders Africa both visible and invisible. When the humanities—and the social sciences—appear beleaguered, solving this paradox may hold the key to understanding what we need to say we are studying for us to say what we are good for. What is left over when we remove Africa from the stock of knowledge the humanities produce?