Let me first thank the organizers for inviting me to deliver the keynote address at this important gathering. It is indeed a great honor to me personally but I also take it as recognition of the endeavors of African social scientists to promote social science research in Africa. One such African social scientist was a colleague and friend, the late Professor Claude Ake who did so much to institutionalize social science research in Africa. I would like to use this occasion to pay him tribute.

Whatever the origins of the name of the series, it is today a salute to the many who struggle for democracy in Africa and a grim reminder that the scourge of militarism still haunts our continent and that those who would rule by the sword are either in power or lurk behind the corridors of power ready at any time to ambush the democratic process.

The title I gave to the lecture must already suggest how unwieldy the subject is. I obviously cannot deal adequately with all the constricting and enabling contingencies within which social science is practiced in Africa. Time and space demand that I be highly selective in my presentation. If I seem to emphasize problem areas in the social sciences in Africa and in the relationship between Africans and their non-African counterparts it will not be because I do not recognize the real gains made in the search for solutions. I should also state at the outset that I am aware of some of the travails of students of Africa in North America and it is not my intention to add more to them. If this is any consolation, let me assure you that your woes are nothing compared to ours.