This chapter provides an overview of the changing debates around the contested concepts of race and ethnicity vis-à-vis African sociology. It highlights African-centered alternative theories and models of race and ethnicity by broadening the sociological imagination beyond the limits imposed by Western models. Central to the chapter is a historical analysis of the establishment of national identities on the continent through the reconstruction of racial and ethnic relations, hierarchies, and identities shaped by the influence of globalization, colonialism, political, and social dynamics across the continent. The first section of the chapter addresses the concept of ethnicity, its historical roots, dimensions, and theoretical perspectives. The latter part of the chapter examines the concept of race.