 Intellectual and institutional histories are unusually central to Africana philosophy, and are intertwined to an unusual degree, but this is not the place to explore the institutional histories in detail. The next section will provide a contemporary intellectual history, in order to establish the structural elements and thematic preoccupations that organize a great deal of the contemporary work we’ll soon consider. Still, it is important to organize the discussion in a way that makes room for responsible institutional histories and accommodates their insights.