We do not judge the outcome of a process by the intentions of its authors. We aim to analyse the objective effects of actions, regardless of their in… - Issa G. Shivji

Colonial and imperial history are at the heart of the present African condition. History is not about assigning or sharing blame. Nor it is about narrating the ‘past’, which must be forgotten and forgiven, or simply remembered once a year on remembrance of heroes or independence days. History is about the present. We must understand the present as history, so as to change it for the better; perforce, in the African context where the imperial project is not only historical, but the lived present. Just as we cannot ‘make poverty history’ without understanding the history of poverty, so we cannot chant ‘another world is possible’ without accurately understanding and correctly describing the existing world of five billion slaves and 200 slave masters. How did it come about and how does it continue to exist? Indeed to answer these questions, we must understand history as the philosophy and political economy that underpin the existing world and the vested interests – real social interests of real people – that ensure and defend its existence.

Policy-making, an attribute of sovereignty for which the government of the day is supposedly accountable to its people.

‘A better world is possible’ according to the NGO slogan. But to build a better world we must understand the world better.