This is an analysis of the complex links between Black America and Africa in the period of 1880 to 1945. It examines an extended white attempt to pattern politics and education in colonial Africa upon the example of the U.S. South. This export of United States race relations to Africa was resisted by Black intellectuals in the United States and many of the early nationalists in Africa. At another level, the study offers an original account of the parallel and related development of the education systems of the U.S. South and Kenya, revealing in both spheres the essentially political nature of African and Black American education. Through extensive research in Black colleges, philanthropic foundations, and Christian missions, a wealth of new material has been collated also on early pan-African politicians, Black missionaries to Africa, and African students in the United States.