ABSTRACT
Revisiting the African Renaissance begins with a discussion of how, during the second evolutionary/development period prior to the fifteenth century, Africa was leading the world, with its own universities in Egypt, Morocco, and Mali, as well as boasting of the most expansive civilizations in Egypt and Great Zimbabwe. This means that through the African Renaissance, Africa has been striving to re-emerge after its trajectory was disturbed by periods which included the kidnapping of its people (the slave trade) and colonialism. The chapter proceeds to highlight how such African scholars and leaders as Cheikh Anta Diop, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Pixley Ka Isaka Seme have laid the foundational thought on the regeneration of Africa, a theme which was later embraced by leaders including Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. The Arab Spring is included in the chapter as another attempt to renew Africa. The African Renaissance remains an important terrain of struggle, within which Africa has been fighting to turn over a new leaf. But again the epistemological crisis compromises the African Renaissance. New movements like Rhodes Must Fall are so critical because they take the issue of epistemic crisis very seriously as they re-articulate the decolonization project. .
