Many of the contributions to this issue, ranging over a wide variety of concerns, also examine aspects of African sovereignty and democracy. These two issues have been at the heart of Africa's struggle for development almost since the birth of African nationalism. The issue of sovereignty was central to Nkrumah's call to arms against neo-colonialism. Without a genuine independence, it was argued, without the ability of African states to chart their own strategic direction, the continent had little chance of escaping from the worst features of dependence and underdevelopment and would always be at the mercy of international economic interests and events. So it has proved. The ravages of debt, instability and globalisation have made African independence, if anything, even more fragile and thus more important than it was a generation ago. The problem of establishing and defending national sovereignty has been a familiar theme in the pages of this journal and in the widespread concern in Africa that there is a process of 're-colonisation' going on under the ideological cloak of globalisation and structural reform. Democracy, too, was a central idea of African independence. Indeed, for many it was synonymous with sovereignty. Political movements claimed national independence in the name of democracy, in terms of the rights of Africans to decide their own political destinies. Democracy was the legitimating principle of African sovereignty (just as it had been for the bourgeois revolutions of nineteenth century Europe and Latin America and twentieth century India). If independence meant anything it meant the right of Africans to choose their own governments as free citizens.