Today’s conversation is with Shingi Mavima, who teaches in the Department of History at University of Toledo. He is a specialist in the history and culture of Southern Africa, with particular focus on literature and popular culture. To this end, he has published on African hip hop, the relation of literature to questions of history and memory, and early nationalist literature in colonial Rhodesia. In this conversation, we discuss how Black Studies shapes the study of Africa, how the field facilitates trans-disciplinary and trans-geographic intellectual discussion, and generational shifts in the meaning of Black study.