Presented here are the connections and interactions among people, groups, or countries, and how they behave toward one another in Africa. They are shown as either voluntary and/or involuntary, and how they occur within or among groups. The major foci are twofold. One focus is on networks: i.e., arrangements of intersecting horizontal and vertical sociological lines. And, the other focus is on groups: i.e., numbers of people or things that are sociologically located close together or are considered or classed together. Before broaching these issues, we begin with a conceptualization of social relations to serve as a backdrop for the sections that follow.