Introduction: Bridging Histories of East and Central Africa

Abstract

Regional distinctions such as East and Central Africa have been constructed, originally very much from an outsiders' perspective. Different East and Central African historiographies reflect-and reproduce-these distinctions. However, the inhabitants of those spaces never stopped crossing and entangling them. Likewise, this section approaches East and Central Africa empirically as a space of historical entanglement. Moreover, the authors question the traditional divide between both regions epistemologically, by transferring research perspectives from one region's historiography to the other. They thus illustrate that bridging histories of East and Central Africa can reveal histories that would otherwise remain hidden or marginal.