J495 Senior Seminar
African Cities and Popular Cultures

Course Description

The course will focus on the interdependence between the development of the colonial and post-colonial city and the emergence of popular cultures in Africa, and especially in Central and West Africa.  Nowhere in Africa could popular cultures better develop but in the African city, which can be eminently defined as a place of cultural fusion and diffusion.  Cultural phenomena such as music, women’s associative movements, religious movements, fashion and soccer will be studied in their recreational aspects as well as for their social and political implications.  The course will be run as a seminar, with group discussions freely mixed with short lectures and student presentations.  Student are expected to produce a primary-source based research paper (which topic will be chosen in consultation with the instructor), share their paper with the rest of class and engage in scholarly critique of each other’s work.  

Requirements

A.     Participation in class discussions (20%).

B.     Research Prospectus, which includes a one-page thesis, outline, & an annotated bibliography (10%). 

C.     Class Presentation.  Students are encouraged to be creative and/or provocative in their class presentations.  You may use the board, audio-visual materials, handouts,        etc.  Presentations should be no more than 30 minutes and, whenever possible, should not be read (10%). 

D.    Peer Paper Critique (10%).

E.     Final Draft of Research Paper (50%).

Readings

All required readings for the course are available at the Hungry Mind bookstore and I suggest you purchase all the recommended books.  Additional texts and articles we will discuss in class are on E-reserves (Please check with the library for their location).  These texts are followed by ^(*).  I strongly recommend that you read them at least twice before coming to class. Make notes in your texts or on a separate sheet of paper and highlight or underline the specific passages you want to discuss.

Barber (editor). African Popular Culture.

Barnard. Fashion as Communication.

Scott. Domination and the Arts of Resistance.

Film

Pièces d’Identités (Zaïre/Belgium, 1998, 93 minutes. In French with English subtitles, Director: Ngangura Mweze)

Pièces d’Identités takes us inside the vibrant “ethnic” community of Congolese living along the narrow streets and galleries of Brussels, the Belgian capital.  Congolese immigrants in Brussels have reproduced the same bustling and hustling atmosphere of Kinshasa’s Matongé.  The film is not a farce but a fable.  It’s the story of Mani Kongo, the old and venerable king of the Bakongo, who sets out alone on a quest for his long-lost daughter, Mwana, whom he sent to Belgium to study medicine many years before.  As soon as he leaves the village and enters the Westernized world he finds his identity challenged.  At the travel agency in Kinshasa, young urban sapeurs mistake the king’s royal regalia as the latest fashion statement.  But at the customs in Brussels official try to confiscate it as an imported piece of art.  After only a few days in Brussels, Mani Kongo is eventually robbed, homeless and penniless.  He is tricked into pawning his royal regalia to an unscrupulous art dealer.

Class Participation

The classroom is an environment of learning par excellence.  Not only do students learn from the instructor and by their own critical analysis of the material but they also learn from fellow students.  It is, of course, an intimate and ever-changing space where students are constantly asked to share opinions and critically analyze the issues as the instructor and fellow students are presenting them.  Participation in class discussions is instrumental in the student’s ability to analyze and assimilate information.  Do not feel shy to ask a question, raise an issue or interject a thought.  There are several ways to get prepared for class discussions.  Here are some tips on how students can enrich discussion of the course materials: (1) Spend time before each class preparing for discussion by making notes in your texts or on a separate sheet of paper pertaining to specific passages from the readings that you want to discuss. (2) During class discussions, when raising a question or point about the assigned readings, make specific references to texts, authors and page numbers in question. (3) Listen carefully to an interlocutor’s question and position before responding and making your own comment. Try not to make assumptions about your interlocutor’s intentions or motivations based on his/her gender or origin.  Never hesitate to ask your interlocutor to clarify or restate her/his position.

Research Prospectus

Before handing out the draft of their research paper, students are required to submit a 3-5 page research proposal including:

1.      A one-page thesis delineating the topic and its relevance.

2.      An outline stressing the proposed organization of the paper.

3.      An annotated bibliography comprising at least ten primary and secondary sources relevant to the paper (in addition to assigned course readings).

4.      Prospectus is due February 27.

Nota Bene.  Research Prospectus accounts only for 10% of the final grade.  However, it is mandatory that students turn it in when it is due.  No paper will be accepted without a preliminary prospectus.  

Research Paper

This is a 20-25-page research paper for which students have to use primary and secondary sources.  This paper is the most important component of this course and should be considered as the culmination of your history studies at the undergraduate level.  I am expecting original, well-argued and polished papers.  Students will be given a couple of weeks off in order to research and write their paper.  As a result, I will not accept any paper turned in after the last class session.  Students who do not turn in their paper on time will be marked down “0”.  Here the schedule for the paper:

· February 14: Students have already a precise idea of their topics and meet with me one-on-one to discuss their proposed research topics.

• February 14-26:  Students work on their prospectus.
• February 27: Students turn in their respective prospectuses.
• March 7-30: Students work on their papers and create a draft form of the paper.
• April 3: Completed drafts are submitted to the rest of class.
• April 10-24: Paper presentations.
• April 24-30: By this time, students have received a peer review of their paper and should devote time polishing the draft into a final version.
• April 30 (by 3:00, CA 503P): Paper Due (There will be no extension).

Paper Presentation and Peer Paper Review

The purpose of the presentations is to encourage critical reading and thinking, to help students gain feedback in order to revise and polish their paper.

Students should submit a 2-3 page written review of another student’s paper first draft. Students should provide two copies (one for me and the other for the student whose paper is reviewed). Peer critique should be detailed and incorporate the following:

a)      Identify the paper’s main thesis and starting assumptions, methods, originality, sources and the use of sources.  Critique should also comment on general stylistic aspects.

b)      Provide constructive and useful criticism.  This should help to revise and polish the paper, reformulate the thesis, reassess the using of evidence, the pertinence of the argument, and improvement of writing style.

pla.gia.rize \vb –rized; -riz.ing vt [plagiary] (1716)

: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own

: use (a created production) without crediting the source ~ vi : to

commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product

derived from an existing source —  pla.gia.riz.er n

— from the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1997, p. 888.

We’ve entered an age where the amount of information generated and the technology available to retrieve it have made it easier for anybody to take verbatim words and ideas belonging to somebody else, without the author’s permission, without reference to the authorship, and by passing them as his or her own.  This is unacceptable, especially in the academic environment where copyright laws are supposed to be known and respected by all.  Please always abide by the following rules:

a.       Never use and idea, which you have borrowed, without referring to the authorship.

b.      Figures, when not your own, should always be referenced.

c.       There is nothing wrong in inserting quotes in your work, but always give the source (author, work, date and place of publication, publisher and page number)

While it’s hard for some of us to assimilate that words and ideas are also property and as such are subject to copyright laws, we should always remember the Golden Rule.