This article draws on the African publishing industry initiative to determine ‘Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century’, to discuss writing, scholarship and publishing in and on Africa. It highlights the challenge of promoting commitment to African humanity and creativity without producing a simplistic reductionism or the inflation of belonging in Africa. It also argues for the need to problematize what is published and read on Africa, and to determine how sympathetic to Africa culturally, morally and scientifically authors and publications are. The article concludes with suggestions on how to reverse the process of writing and publishing Africa and Africans into the ‘heart of darkness’ dreamt up by Joseph Conrad and perfected by social science at the service of ambitions of dominance.
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