This issue of the Journal of African Foreign Affairs features various aspects of the continent’s dynamism that are not usually highlighted in commentaries about Africa. The titles spanning from relationships with China, Saudi Arabia, and the BRICS countries to the role of non-state actors in foreign policy making, and to the ideological construct of terrorism show the agency of the continent in dealing with world politics. After all, isn’t Africa the “Real roots of the modern world” as Olúfémi Táiwò affirmed in an article of the same sub-title published in the Foreign Affairs issue of May/June 2022? Take for example the geopolitics of the production of innovative ideas: the first coffee shop opened in Oxford in 1650.The drink produced by Black labor and sweetened by the sweat of enslaved Africans created a culture for conversation and debates in Europe that would lead to innovative ideas. To borrow one more example from Táiwò, one of the earliest examples of liberal constitution can be found in the 1871 Fante Constitution. The articles featured in this issue of the African Journal of Foreign Affairs affirm the agency of the African state in world politics and continue the tradition of statehood in the continent. The readers will enjoy reading them.