 Contemporary Africana philosophy builds on the periods of emergence, establishment, and consolidation in four broad ways. Some thinkers work to fortify and expand the field’s store of germinal texts and figures. Others continue to improvise on the defining traits of the mainstream schools and movements. Still others complicate and broaden the map of regional preoccupations. And interventions of all three types push new themes and debates, or new takes on older themes and debates, toward the center of the field. The first three will be the subject of this section, while the fourth will be the subject of Section 7.