The articles in this special issue are revised versions of papers delivered in September 1978 at the African Studies Association of the United Kingdom conference on ‘Whites in Africa – Past, Present and Future’. The choice of conference topic aroused some controversy. Addressing himself to the ‘Pink ASAUK’, one correspondent enclosed a cutting from West Africa in which news of the forthcoming conference was ominously included on the same page as a report on ‘Freetown's Rubbish Plan’. The writer made two points: ‘Human beings are citizens, not colours or numbers as your hollow minds suggest’; ‘Now that Africa is nearly free from imperialism and exploitation…dishonest intellectuals from British universities are conspiring to draw a new map of Africa.’