Encyclopedia Africana

Encyclopedia Africana

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience edited by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah (Basic Civitas Books 1999, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9) is a compendium of Africana studies including African studies and the "Pan-African diaspora" inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois' project of an "Encyclopedia Africana". Du Bois envisioned "an Encyclopedia Africana," which was to be "unashamedly Afro-Centric but not indifferent to the impact of the outside world."

The first edition appeared in a single volume, of which about a third each was dedicated to North American African-American studies, to Afro-Latin American topics of Latin America and the Caribbean and to Africa proper. The second edition was published by Oxford University Press in five volumes, including more than 3500 entries on 3960 pages.