This is a list of Africanists.
| Name | Occupation | Birth date | Death date | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinua Achebe | Poet and professor | 1930-11-16 | 2013-03-31 |  |
| J. F. Ade Ajayi | Historian | 1929-05-26 | 2014-08-09 | |
| Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu | Marxist and minister | 1924 | 1996-08-05 | |
| Erdmute Alber | German ethnologist, chair in Social Anthropology, University of Bayreuth since 2010 | 1963-07-14 |  | |
| François Bassolet | Journalist and historian | 1933 | 2001-07-02 | |
| Thomas Bierschenk | German ethnologist and sociologist, Prof.em.Dr., University of Mainz | 1951-07-18 | ||
| Helmut Bley | German historian, Prof.em.Dr, Leibniz University Hannover | 1935-02-26 |  | |
| Albert Adu Boahen | Academic, politician and historian | 1932-05-24 | 2006-05-24 | |
| Amílcar Cabral | Revolutionary | 1924-09-12 | 1973-01-20 |  |
| Gwendolen M. Carter | Political scientist | 1906 | 1991-02-20 |  |
| Patrick Chabal | Africanist | 1951-04-29 | 2014-01-16 |  |
| J. Desmond Clark | British archaeologist | 1916-04-10 | 2002-02-14 |  |
| John Henrik Clarke | Historian | 1915-01-01 | 1998-07-12 | |
| Basil Davidson | Historian | 1914-11-09 | 2010-07-09 | |
| Kenneth Dike | Historian | 1917-12-17 | 1983-10-26 | |
| Cheikh Anta Diop | Historian | 1923-12-29 | 1986-02-07 | |
| Stephen Ellis | Historian | 1953-06-13 | 2015-07-29 |  |
| Georg Elwert | German sociologist and anthropologist | 1947-06-01 | 2005-03-31 |  |
| Orishatukeh Faduma | Missionary and educator | 1855-09-15 | 1946-02-25 |  |
| John Fage | Historian | 1921-06-03 | 2002-08-06 | |
| Frantz Fanon | Psychiatrist and political philosopher | 1925-07-20 | 1961-12-06 | |
| Joseph Greenberg | Linguist | 1915-05-28 | 2001-05-07 | |
| Marcel Griaule | Author and anthropologist | 1898-05-16 | 1956-02-23 | |
| Gerhard Grohs | German sociologist and Africanist | 1929-06-24 | 2015-02-18 | |
| Anatoly Gromyko | Soviet scientist and diplomat | 1932-04-15 | 2017-09-25 |  |
| William Leo Hansberry | Scholar and lecturer | 1894-02-25 | 1965-11-03 | |
| Leonhard Harding | German historian and scholar in African studies | 1938-09-14 |  | |
| Hans Peter Hahn | German ethnologist and scholar in African studies | 1963 |  | |
| David Henige | American historian, bibliographer, academic librarian and Africanist scholar | 1938 | ||
| Melville J. Herskovits | Anthropologist | 1895-09-10 | 1963-02-25 | |
| Rolf Hofmeier | German economist (Prof.em.Dr.) director of the Institute for African Studies (IAK), GIGA, Hamburg (1976–2000) | 1939 | ||
| Anne Hugon | French africanist | 1965 | ||
| Carola Lentz | German social anthropologist | 1954-04-21 |  | |
| Manuel Iradier | Explorer | 1854-07-06 | 1911-07-19 |  |
| Anthony Kirk-Greene | Scholar | 1925-05-16 | 2018-07-08 | |
| Georg Klute | German ethnologist, sociologist | 1952 | ||
| Ali Mazrui | Professor | 1933-02-04 | 2014-10-12 | |
| Henning Melber | German political scientist, sociologist. Prof.em.Dr., Nordic Africa Institute Uppsala, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (2006–2012) (Sweden) | 1950-08-22 | ||
| Carl Meinhof | Linguist | 1857-07-23 | 1944-02-11 |  |
| Rowland Percy Moss | Economist | 1928-05-08 | ||
| Godfrey Mwakikagile | Author, academic, historian, and theorist | 1949-10-04 | ||
| Gustav Nachtigal | German explorer of Central and West Africa. | 1834-02-23 | 1885-04-20 |  |
| Kwame Nkrumah | Politician and revolutionary | 1909-09-21 | 1972-04-27 |  |
| Julius Nyerere | Activist, politician, and political theorist | 1922-04-13 | 1999-10-14 |  |
| Roland Oliver | Academic and Emeritus Professor of African history | 1923-03-30 | 2014-02-09 | |
| Hans-Joachim Preuss | Agricultural economist, development expert, university teacher | 1955-06-05 |  | |
| Jean Price-Mars | Doctor, teacher, politician, diplomat, writer, and ethnographer | 1876-10-15 | 1969-03-01 |  |
| Theo Rauch | German economist, consultant, professor | 1945-07-17 |  | |
| Terence Ranger | Africanist | 1929-11-29 | 2015-01-03 | |
| Robert Sutherland Rattray | Barrister | 1881 | 1938 | |
| Walter Rodney | Historian, political activist and academic | 1943-03-23 | 1980-03-13 | |
| Justinian Rweyemamu | Economics scholar | 1942-09-28 | 1982-03-30 | |
| Galia Sabar | Israeli professor of African studies | 1963 | ||
| Gerd Spittler | German ethnologist and sociologist, Prof.em.Dr., University of Bayreuth | 1939-04-04 |  | |
| Jean Suret-Canale | Theoritican, political activist, and resistance fighter | 1921-04-27 | 2007-06-23 |  |
| Ivan Svanidze | Soviet academic, nephew and son-in-law of Joseph Stalin | 1927-10-15 | 1987-08-03 | |
| Bala Usman | Academic, politician and historian | 1945 | 2005-09-24 | |
| Ivan Van Sertima | Associate professor of Africana Studies | 1935-01-26 | 2009-05-25 |  |
| Jan Vansina | Historian and anthropologist | 1929-10-14 | 2017-02-08 | |
| Katja Werthmann | German ethnologist, African studies, area studies, Professor at the University of Leipzig | 1964 | ||
| Diedrich Hermann Westermann | Missionary, Africanist, and linguist | 1875-04-24 | 1956-05-31 | |
| Ivor Wilks | Africanist and historian | 1928-07-19 | 2014-10-07 | |
| Andrzej Zajączkowski | Sociologist, cultural anthropologist, and Africanist | 1922-05-27 | 1994-12-16 |