Abstract

In what may very well be the most recognized statement in the history of social scientific inquiry on race, W.E.B. Du Bois (1903) wrote in his classic book The Souls of Black Folk that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line. In making this claim, Du Bois forecast what ultimately became a major social preoccupation. Throughout the twentieth century and beyond, race became a central factor in social conflicts that emanated around the globe, and in the formation and (in some cases) re-formation of various nation-states—many of those on the continent of Africa (McKee 1993; Rex 1986; Winant 2001).