In the title of this book we promised to provide African perspectives on autism. The time has come to ask if we succeeded. Formally, we can say that we have. All but one of the chapters in this book were written by authors currently living and researching in Africa, and our two Australian colleagues have long-standing links with our continent. But if we delve in a little deeper and ask if there is anything in this volume that is distinctly African, that could not have been written anywhere else, then we must come up with a more nuanced answer. Three issues immediately spring to mind.

First, every author in this volume (and I must include myself in this) uncritically accepts the DSM-V and its predecessors. In this era of decolonial and post-colonial discourse, how can we Africans allow the American Psychiatric Association to be the final arbiter of our (dis)ability? Is it not time for us to delve into the question of what it means to have a disability in African society? France does not use the DSM, but has developed its own classification system known as the CFTMEA (Classification Française des Troubles Mentaux de L’Enfant et de L’Adolescent). Should Africa not do the same?

That does not mean that we need to discard all the excellent work done by Euro- American researchers, clinicians and educators. But far more thought needs to go into fundamental issues. If we can work out our own understanding of disability, we will be able to evaluate the work done elsewhere in the right context.

Second, our contributions are geographically constrained. Africa is the second largest continent. It has a dazzling variety of cultures and traditions. But our book concentrates on the southern tip of Africa. Perhaps it was presumptuous of us to claim the continent in our title. Here we can only promise to look further afield in future volumes.

Third, some of us have appealed to the concept of Ubuntu. It is an attractive concept, but like all attractive concepts it runs the risk of being absolutised. To what extent is Ubuntu an objective description of an existing pan-African ethos? Could it be more usefully viewed as a condition devoutly to be wished for and worked towards? Is Ubuntu a timeless African ontology or is it an active teleological direction?