Tilley primarily situates the work in colonial British history. She also draws on postcolonial African studies like Mudimbe (The Invention of Africa) and Talal Asad. In contrast to arguments made by Mudimbe or Asad, Tilley makes it much more difficult to make the argument that there is a dominant colonial episteme imposed upon Africa -- that knowledge is made through many different modes and many actors, in conflict/tension with one another.
