Space has been reintroduced as an analytical category to the humanities and social sciences in the early 1990s. African Studies is one of the fields of knowledge production where the so-called spatial turn has proved to be extremely fruitful. The continent provides ample evidence for complex processes of deterritorialisation (migration, globalisation, sub-nationalisms) and reterritorialisation (new regionalisms, processes of bordering, etc.). These dialectical processes are driven by a variety of actors: political elites, multinational companies, warlords, donor governments, local traders, international NGOs, etc. As a result substantial parts of Africa witness the emergence of new regimes of territoriality: re-ordered states, transnational and sub-national entities, new localities and transborder formations. This volume brings together contributions from anthropology, history, geography and political science.

Ulf Engel, Dr. phil. (1994) and Habilitation (1999) in Political Science, is a Professor of Politics in Africa at the University of Leipzig. He has published extensively on Africa's international relations. He also co-edited African Alternatives (with L. de Haan and P. Chabal; Brill, 2007).
Paul Nugent, Ph.D. (1991), SOAS, is Professor of Comparative African History and Director of the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. He has published three monographs, including Africa Since Independence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and has a particular interest in border spaces. Paul is the current President of AEGIS.