The collection summarizes the results of research by leading Russian Africanists on a wide range of issues related to the historical self-identification of Africans. The focus is on the forms and channels of transformation of interracial and interethnic relations and types of ethnopolitical consciousness in the countries of Tropical Africa (based on the material of South Africa, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, etc.), as well as in African communities beyond its borders (CCSRossia, USA, Great Britain) in colonial and post-colonial eras.