When we jointly assumed the editorship of the Journal of Modern African Studies in 2012, we doubled the number of editors in the journal's fifty-year history. We conclude our five-year term in awe and admiration for the dedication – and the stamina – of the journal's first two editors: David Kimble (1963–1997) and Christopher Clapham (1997–2012). We, and the entire Africanist academic community, are indebted to them for the pioneering work they did in the development of the field of African Studies.

The current dynamism of the field is testament to their efforts. One of the great pleasures as editors was to be regularly reminded of the astounding volume of empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated research produced by scholars deeply engaged with the social and political dynamics of contemporary Africa. We take the opportunity to thank all of those who allowed us to consider their work, and only regret that it was not possible to publish more. We have been heartened by the increasing number of single-authored and joint submissions from scholars based in Africa.

Editing a journal is a collaborative effort. We thank the members of the journal's editorial board, several of whom went beyond expectations in helping us at particularly busy moments. Perhaps our greatest debt is to the hundreds of scholars who generously gave their time to serve as reviewers of articles. We pass the torch deeply cognisant of the fact that the academic enterprise is possible only thanks to the dedicated and unremunerated labour of an entire community of colleagues.

It has been a pleasure to work with the Cambridge University Press staff. As a colleague, Associate Editor Maggie Dwyer deserves much of the credit for keeping the journal on track. And we are grateful for the enthusiastic embrace of the challenges of continuing that effort by the dynamic new editorial team of Ebenezer Obadare and Ian Taylor. We wish them all the best.