I am struck by the understanding that we cannot fully grasp, on a large scale and in granular detail, the development of African modernities without first appreciating the challenges and hold of the past, of history and traditions. We will find it hard, for example, to understand how some people speak of their experience of modern African cities such as Lagos and Luanda, in contrast to how they speak of their experience of traditional life, without first understanding the store many people set by cultures and traditions while also struggling to have those cultures and traditions respond to their contemporary needs in African urban spaces.