In November 2015 a conference was held at the University of Birmingham to discuss the main themes and legacies of the work of Paulo Fernando De Moraes Farias. What types of evidence, data, and sources can we use to expand knowledge of the African past? How can different types of evidence be critically analysed, be they landmarks on African landscapes or texts produced by authors unfolding specific intellectual and political projects? These were the central questions that animated the 2015 conference. Many of the papers presented then have now been included in a volume published by Brill that will be presented at this round-table. With twenty-four chapters by leading researchers in the study of West African history and cultures, the volume examines the main trends in multiple fields including the critical interpretation of Arabic sources; new archaeological surveys of trans-Saharan trade; the discovery of sources in Latin America relating to pan-Atlantic histories; and the continuing analysis of oral histories. At this roundtable the volume’s editors and some contributors will present the book to Professor De Moraes Farias and introduce the book’s main contributions to the historiography of West Africa.