# The General History of Africa as an alternative  
The GHA was crafted as an alternative to the Eurocentric views of world history. The search for an alternative to the situation of alienation, domination and dependency has been part of the activities of some individuals or organized groups as early as the nineteenth century, with activists like Marcus Garvey, intellectuals like E. W. Blyden, W. E. B. Du Bois, and more recently Cheikh Anta Diop, to name but a few towering figures. Surfing the waves of political independence of African countries in the middle of the twentieth century, UNESCO's GHA project was launched to decolonize African history. The product that emerged from that initiative ended up as an important collection of eight volumes, published between 1981 and 1999. They are arranged along a chronological sequence, with some unavoidable overlap, each volume coordinated by one or two editors. In his preface, A. M. M'Bow, then Director-General of UNESCO, summarized what was at stake in the writing of the eight-volume General History of Africa. His presentation focused on a number of key issues, including 'the denial' of history, the false assumption of a 'balkanized' continent, and the conception of Africans and Afrodescendants as 'the wretched of the Earth'. He explained the genesis of the project and its scientific ambitions, and asserted the imperative for a widespread circulation and the need for pedagogical use of the published works.