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Most Western-driven theories do not have a place in Black communicative experience, especially in Africa. Many scholars interested in articulating and interrogating Black communication scholarship are therefore at the crossroads of either having to use Western-driven theory to explain a Black communication dynamic, or have to use hypothetical rules to achieve their objectives, since they cannot find compelling Black communication theories to use as reference. Colonization and the African slave trade brought with it assimilationist tendencies that have dealt a serious blow on the cognition of most Blacks on the continent and abroad. As a result, their interpersonal as well as in-group dialogic communication had witnessed dramatic shifts. Black/Africana Communication Theory assembles skilled communicologists who propose uniquely Black-driven theories that stand the test of time. Throughout the volume's fifteen chapters theories including but not limited to Afrocentricity, Afro-Cultural Mulatto, Venerative Speech Theory, Africana Symbolic Contextualism Theory, HaramBuntu-Government-Diaspora Communications Theory, Consciencist Communication Theory and Racial Democracy Effect Theory are introduced and discussed. Kehbuma Langmia is Professor/Chair and Fulbright Scholar in the Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communications, Howard University in Washington, DC, USA. He has extensive knowledge and expertise in Public Speaking, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Intercultural Communication and Social Media. He has published eleven books, fourteen book chapters and nine peer-reviewed journal articles nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of the 2017 Toyin Falola Book Award for his most recent book, Globalization and Cyberculture (Palgrave 2016)

Abstract
Several theories on communication are tested on trial to what extent they can provide additional insight in business history. All are focused on one known example, the relation between the dyestuff cartel and its Japanese competitors in the interwar period. Can theory extend the limits of our knowledge even in well known cases? While the classification of types of information transfer according to Chun Wei Choo provides only limited new insights, other theories provided interesting results. One is the creation of mutual trust, which helps to explain the - from an economic point of view - quite surprising longevity of the cartel. Another application provides reasons for the cartel's largest strategic failure. Thus, communication theory can but need not provide deeper insights into business history.

Communication theory is not only about society; it is also in society and contributes to the evolution of the communication practices that constitute society, thereby participating in processes of social change. This theme is illustrated by examining the ideas of network and ritual to show how each emerged as a practical concept in Western culture long before it was theorized explicitly for scientific purposes, and how each concept has developed in conjunction with profound changes in the communicative constitution of society. Next, it is argued more generally that communication theory and practice interact in the medium of metadiscourse, and that the discourse about communication, on both theoretical and practical levels, also engages critically with other discourses such as traditional authoritarianism and political realism, thus being caught up in social conflicts. In this complex scene of metadiscursive controversy and social conflict, communication theory participates in social change. Finally, it is suggested that this view on the role of communication theory in social change can contribute to recent conversations about the development of Asian communication theory.