In bringing together the different arguments that have been made in this volume, this chapter begins by identifying the main points of full or near-full consensus among scholars of politics in Africa. Building on this baseline of propositions, I will offer my own summary statement of politics unbound. The next section will address the implications of the points made in this volume for future research and Africa's position in the discipline of political science, notably the field of comparative politics. The chapter ends with a discussion of the relationship between area studies and the mainstream of the discipline.

WHAT DO SCHOLARS AGREE UPON?

A main purpose of this volume has been to sift through half a century of scholarship on politics in Africa. Time has come to ask what knowledge we have accumulated and what we agree upon. The process of knowledge generation, not surprisingly, has been winding; the result, therefore, not so easy to capture in brief. This difficulty notwithstanding, there is a need to come up with a coherent profile that tells us what politics in Africa is all about. There is a good deal of consensus on a number of points. Based on my reading of the subject matter, I am ready to conclude that most, if not all, scholars would agree with the ten propositions I offer here. They are all stated in terms of what seems to matter most.