A Conversation on Africa’s Role in the Making of the Modern World with Howard French

In February, in celebration of Black History Month in the United States, Dr. Howard W. French joined us for a conversation on his latest book Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World In a conversation with Lawrence Jones, EEI Vice President for International Programs, Dr. French gives insights from the book and reframes world history that has, perhaps intentionally, obliterated the role of Africa in the creation of modernity. He puts Africa and Africans at the very center of the origins of modernity to discuss the region's future potential with regards to the energy transition and the creation of new value chains.

With young and expansive human potential, untapped renewable energy, and critical mineral reserves, several African countries are well-poised to become key players in the global energy transition. What critical roles will Africa play in the global energy transition? How could Africa become a new global epicenter of value-added supply chains? What are the opportunities for innovation with the region's underexplored human capital so that their contributions will be in future histories alongside other historical figures?

Howard W. French is the author of four works of non-fiction, including most recently Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (Norton - Liveright, 2021) which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the Financial Times. His previous book, Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power (Knopf 2017), was named as a notable book of the year by The New York Times and the Guardian. Since 2008, French has been a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Prior to that, for over two decades he was a senior writer and foreign correspondent for The New York Times.