We Africans – who entered the 20th century before the rest of the world through the contrasting gates of freedom and annihilation; who face the radical deepening of all inequalities; and the continuous irruption of the unprecedented, but also of hope, even as old issues remain pending – are challenged to think and build the futures we desire for Africa and the Planet. The only viable options will be those that place courage, freedom and truth – whose conquest is a never-ending struggle – at the heart of new social contracts.

In the context of today’s technological and digital revolution, humanity has rarely had so many opportunities to transform the material existence of men and women. However, we have never been so closely on the brinks of all possible limits. The sustained attention required to understand these possibilities and challenges together within the temporalities involved in ensuring/assuring the continent’s futures – understanding and translating both masse and individual aspirations on the continent and in the diaspora, besides decoding their day-to-day lives and inventiveness – are some of the essential axes that have motivated the launch of this journal, Global Africa.

This transdisciplinary and transnational project, situated at the intersections between Africa and its encounters with the world, is the result of many years of critical reflection and knowledge transformation initiatives, aimed at rebuilding Africa and African knowledge. Its genesis is the product of many happy encounters, of contradictory debates on the role and place of research and knowledge in response to African and global challenges. Furthermore, it is the product of critical reflexivity that contributes to strengthening the epistemological, theoretical, methodological and deontological foundations of African/Africanist research, and on the conditions for a truly free discourse on the Continent and in the world.

Its founders are profoundly committed to overcoming some of the geographical, linguistic, disciplinary, and ideological rifts that have prevented or distracted the continent from shedding some of the abusive bonds that have long defined Africa’s relationship to the world and, ironically, to itself. As a space that positions the principles of convivial scholarship, incompleteness, and interdependence as central pillars in the co-production of scholarly knowledge, Global Africa will embrace a policy of openness:

• to contributors from all backgrounds, both disciplinary and intellectual; particular emphasis will be placed on young researchers,

• towards priority themes for the continent, whose paradigms will be constantly reassessed;

• towards the arts and endogenous knowledge,

• towards the users of the knowledge produced (civil society actors, political activists and decision-makers, private sector and citizens), and finally,

• openness towards African languages mobilised for research and as working languages. The journal therefore adopts French, English, Arabic and Swahili (and, we hope, other African languages soon) as languages of publication, with a view to contributing to ending intellectual exclusion and marginalisation.

Global Africa believes these openness will be all the more legitimate if they are based on knowledge produced and validated through the best academic standards. In order to strengthen the ecosystem of scientific knowledge publication in Africa, the texts published by Global Africa will respond to a major requirement: to invest in subjects that advance knowledge, furthering the understanding of reality, in a field – whether disciplinary or thematic – based on theoretical and conceptual constructions, as well as solid, proven empirical data.

In so doing, we seek to correct the marginalisation of African research and publications in international scientific production, even though the continent is an exemplary place for the intertwining of local, national, communal and transnational issues – marked by identifiable innovations and tensions. Such an ambition entails providing a demanding and rigorous forum for African researchers’ voices and for all the research work that contributes to rethink Africa and the world from an African perspective in order to better describe and envision its trajectories.

Global Africa also strives to be a vibrant pan-African community of aspirations, that welcomes anyone keen on inhabiting a space that is not free of challenges, but where they will not lose their souls. It is armed with these aspirations that we would like to envision the century that lies ahead by listening first and foremost to the voices and vibrations of the intellectual youth of the continent and the diaspora.