A tradition of social science scholarly publishing exists in Africa, dating back not only to the establishment of the early university presses such as the University of Ibadan Press in 1951, but rather further back to the anthropological writings and historical, social and economic analyses that characterized the social science disciplines during the colonial period. Although some of these writings were by Africans, the vast majority were by expatriates consisting in the main of colonial officials, educationists, missionaries and the founding members of the faculties that made up the early colleges in Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tunis, Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Egypt, Uganda and South Africa.

In general, not much distinction either in origin, class or orientation existed between these producers of social science publications, and quite often they shifted positions between being missionaries, colonial officials, educationists and academics.