# An epistemic shift: Global Africa  
This project implies writing a serene history of Africans and people of African descent on a global scale. That is what is subsumed under the concept of 'Global Africa'; in other words, taking into account the many dimensions of Africanness worldwide, from the initial expansion of humans from the African continent to the successive diasporas over time, right up to the present day (Harris, 1993; Hodgson and Byfield, 2017). The concept allows us to overcome the customary dichotomies and divisions between Africa and the African diasporas, enabling a balanced understanding of the African diasporas, in the long term and in their diversity. It equally allows us to reassess approaches to the period of enslavement, to study the relationship between pan-Africanism and the diasporas, and the enhancement of pan-Africanist thinking nurtured by contributions from different diasporic experiences. In other words, it allows us to address actively and transversally the different issues linking Africa and its diasporas.