Looking Backwards, and then Forwards: Africans and the 21st Century

Abstract

Background: Two years ago, we were consumed by a disease called the ' millennium fever', or as some preferred to describe it ' millennium mania'. This epidemic gripped the world as we moved into A.D. 2000 forcing on many minds exercises of historical summation, which permitted observers to indulge, in modest conjectures, about the past, present and future, but also, often grandiose prognostications about the future. The symbolic significance of the millennium, many will admit, provided an intellectual excuse for the evaluation of records. The choice of records to be examined was left to the individual.