## Introduction  
The historic mission undertaken by pan-African and nationalist intellectuals in the last century was to recuperate and re-frame Africa from an Africancentred epistemological perspective. This intellectual task was an integral aspect of anti-colonial movements, providing knowledge that would free Africans from colonial mentality and generate confidence as African nations claimed their place in the community of nations. This epistemological shift was as generative as it was political, as evidenced by aesthetic transformations in the arts, cinema and literature, and push for new research paradigms and theories that could serve African interests and agendas.  
In the context of decolonization, the first generation of African intellectuals, most of whom had been trained in the West and experienced racism first-hand, concentrated on historical recovery. A mood of renaissance accompanied the publication of ground-breaking texts, exemplified in the work of Cheikh Anta Diop (1974). Diop's thesis held that Ancient Egypt was an African civilization and that this was the root of all human civilization. His thesis became a classic, powerfully contradicting European claims and their assertions of supremacy, while celebrating the greatness of African civilization.