"This book provides a powerful and probing critique of the myths, meanings, promises, and perils of globalization, postcoloniality, and other currently popular discourses by interrogating their implications for Africa and African studies. It challenges misrepresentations and misappropriations of Africa in academic texts and in the popular media and reaffirms the importance of progressive nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and internationalism for Africa's reconstruction, a project in which universities and African intellectuals - including those in the North - have a critical role to play in promoting productive trans-national literacy and conversations across the Atlantic. Erudite, interdisciplinary, and compelling, this book offers incisive reflections on the enduring questions of African development, democracy, and self-determination, and it emphasizes the importance of education and radical scholarship in meeting the daunting challenges of the new century."--cover.