Part 1 Claims: the search for Africa's past; Africa and the invention of racism; rescuing Africa's history; Africanism and its meanings. Part 2 Antipathies: trigger-happy transvaal; resistance in South Africa; the roots of anti-apartheid; South Africa - a system of legalized servitude; Congo saga; "a little corner of paradise"; pluralism in colonial African societies. Part 3 Sympathies: African peasants and revolution; ideas and circumstances; the legacy of Amilcar Cabral. Part 4 Debates: nationalism and its ambiguities; nationalism and Africa's self-transformation; the politics of resitution; Southern Africa - progress or disaster? Part 5 Arguments: the Ancient World and Africa - whose roots?; the curse of Columbus.