The following three pieces constitute the second JAH Forum. The aim of this relatively new feature is to spark wide-ranging discussion and debate within the journal, and to encourage deeper reflection on significant trends and cutting-edge developments in various subfields of African history. Each Forum consists of two or more essays on a topic of broad interest within African history and beyond. When inviting contributions, JAH editors ask authors to discuss the proposed topic from their own unique perspectives while providing some assessment of existing scholarship – both historical and interdisciplinary – as well as some suggestions about where future studies might or should be heading. For this JAH Forum on Africa and Global History we also asked Patrick Manning, Andrew Zimmerman, and Isabel Hofmeyr to consider the question of if and how historians of Africa might be uniquely posed to contribute to the fields of world and transnational history. We hope that you find their responses as illuminating and exciting as we have.