Modern
Africa
H421 / H521
Professor: Didier
Gondola Office
Hours: T: 10:30-12:30
Time: T: 5:45-8:25 Email:
gondola@iupui.edu
Nota
bene: This syllabus and other course materials can
be found on the web page (http://oncourse.iu.edu)
and on the homepage of the Department of History. To get to the History Department homepage: from http://www.iupui.edu click on ACADEMICS; then
SCHOOLS; then IU SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS; then RELATED PAGES; then DEPARTMENT OF
HISTORY; then COURSES and CLASS MATERIALS, then H421-H521.
History
421/521 is dual course offered to undergraduate (H421) and graduate students
(H521). Graduate students who wish to
take this course for graduate credit may not take H421 but rather H521. One of the most important issues in modern
African history is the extent of the colonial impact on African societies. Was colonization a major rupture or a
parenthesis? Have African communities
managed to preserve some of their precolonial traditions in spite of the
colonial episode? Are African societies still influenced by the colonial
legacy? And, to begin with, was Africa really decolonized? Those are some of the questions this course
will attempt to address. It will
examine present African societies, with a focus on West Africa and Central
Africa, in light of the ruptures and continuities of the past and the present. The class is run as a seminar with short
lectures followed by class discussions.
Questions concerning the subject matter of the course are welcome at any
time.
A.
Regular
class attendance and participation in class discussions (20%). Students will be asked to relate their
questions and comments to the assigned readings in order to facilitate
productive discussion and engagement of the course materials.
B.
Three
quizzes (10%); the lowest grade will be dropped.
C.
Mid-Term
Exam (20%).
D.
Final
Exam (20%) includes only materials and topics covered since midterm. There is no final exam.
E.
Final
Paper, 5-7 double-spaced pages (30%).
History
521, Graduate Students:
A.
Regular
class attendance and participation in class discussions (20%). Students will be asked to relate their
questions and comments to the assigned readings in order to facilitate
productive discussion and engagement of the course materials.
B.
Three
quizzes (10%); the lowest grade will be dropped.
C.
Mid-Term
Exam (20%).
D.
One
7-10 page critical analysis of primary documents to be provided by the
instructor (20%).
E.
Final
Paper, 10-15 double-spaced pages (30%).
Books [available
at the University bookstore. Each
student should purchase and read according to the schedule dates the books
required]
All
required readings for the course are available at the bookstore and I suggest
you purchase all the recommended books.
Additional texts and articles (followed by *) we will discuss in class are on E-reserves (Please
check with the library for their location).
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.
Freund. The Making of Contemporary Africa.
Memmi. The Colonizer & the Colonized
Achebe. Things Fall Apart.
Northrup. The Atlantic Slave Trade.
Freund. The Making of Contemporary Africa.
Memmi. The Colonizer & the Colonized
Achebe. Things Fall Apart.
Northrup. The Atlantic Slave Trade.
·
Basil Davidson: Africa
(1984)
·
Ali Mazrui, The Africans
(1985)
·
Africa (A PBS Series, 2000)
·
Africans
in America (1998)
·
Women
with Open Eyes (1993)
·
The
Amistad Revolt. All we Want is to be
Free (1995)
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 they
are being presented by the instructor and fellow students. 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.
I
believe that a grade is less a reward for or a penalty against the student’s intelligence
than a reflexion of the student’s proficiency to write clearly and persuasively
a paper on a given topic. Organization
and pertinence of ideas, as well as grammar and clarity, are among some the
chief criteria I use in grading a paper.
With this in mind I give the following grades:
D.
is
for a paper written with a level of grammatical errors that sometimes hinders
the comprehension. Ideas exist but are arranged without a clear logic. Some of
them are obscure and unintelligible. Sentences are confusing…
F.
is
for a paper quickly and poorly written, with incomplete sentences, and often
off-subject. This grade signifies an unacceptable performance in writing a
specific assignment. Usually the
content can hardly be grasped because of a lack of clarity and organization.
Letters
Numbers Letters Numbers Letters Numbers Letters Numbers
A+ 97-100 B+ 85-88 C+ 73-76 D+ 61-64
A 93-96
B 81-84 C 69-72 D 57-60
F 52
Here are some writing tips:
1.
“Have
something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of
style” (Matthew Arnold).
2.
“The
great enemy of clear language is insincerity” (George Orwell).
3.
When
writing a paper, do not make unsupported assertions. Try to present the most convincing case for your argument. Think carefully and thoroughly about the
evidence you will use to support your position. Always anticipate opposing critiques of your position and
opposing arguments. Try to answer or address opposing positions as you present
your own position. This will
demonstrate that you are aware of alternative viewpoints and that you are
capable of proposing and defending a thesis.
4.
Your
paper should not be a first-draft presentation and organization of your
thoughts. Give yourself ample time to
read the assigned materials and to consult appropriate sources before making
final decisions about your thesis statement and the supporting evidence which
will provide structure for your argument and conclusion. For example, you might begin writing your
final paper by making very strong statements about a point you aim at
defending. However, in consulting the
works of scholars in the field, you may see the need to modify your original
thesis, or you may be compelled to abandon it altogether. This is to be expected in scholarly research
and writing. You should not feel
reluctant to change your argument if your reasons for changing it are more
convincing than your original reasons for posing it.
5.
Please
take advantage of all the resources available to you when planning to write
your paper. Never hesitate to ask
reference librarians for help in trying to locate scholarly sources. Never hesitate to ask me for extra help in
thinking through your ideas for the paper. Discusing a topic before researching
and writing can help you think of new ideas and new approaches and sources. It
can also save time.
6.
Always
use page numbering and a 12 inch-font. Do not hesitate to use footnotes I you
think they might clarify your demonstration.
A bibliography should always figure at the end of your paper. Double-spacing is a requirement.
7.
Last
but not least, always proofread your paper before you hand it in to be graded.
Not only does proofread help rid your paper of any grammatical errors and typos
that can make its content less comprehensible and appealing, but it also helps
to consider re-wording a sentence or improving an existing idea. Proofreading
can make a difference in your grade.
Student Dishonesty
1. Cheating
“A Student must not submit substantial portions of the same academic work
for credit or honors more than once without permission of the instructor to
whom the work is being submitted.” This
is one among many forms of cheating.
For more details, please refer to the Code of Student Rights,
Responsibilities, and Conducts.
2. 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 that 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 is
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.
(Also refer to
the Indiana University Bulletin, 1998-2000: School of Liberal Arts, p.
20-21)
January 8:
Why Study Africa? What is Modern
Africa?
The Image of Africa.
Hegel,
Philosophy of World History
Afropessimism,
Afrocentrism, Multiculturalism & other isms.
January 15:
West & Equatorial Africa
Freund, 1 & 2
January 22: Discussion: What Is
Slavery?
Northrup, Introduction
Did Slavery Exist in Africa
before the Europeans?
Northrup, The Slave Trade
Within Africa
January 29: Did Europeans come to Africa to
Enslave Africans?
Freund, 3
Is the all Thing about Sugar?
February 5:
The Making of Slaves: European & African Involvement
In the Atlantic Slave Trade
Northrup, The Middle Passage
February 12:
To What Extent did The Slave Trade Affect African Societies?
Northrup, Effects in Africa
The
Abolition of The Slave Trade and Slavery
Freund, 4
Northrup, Abolition
Discussion: Black
Holocaust?
Northrup, Effects in
Europe and the Americas
March 5: From Slave Trade to Legitimate
Commerce
The Scramble for Africa &
European Conquest
Freund, 5
African Resistance to Colonization
SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK
March 19: South Africa: The Roots of
Apartheid
Freund, 8
Discussion: What
is Colonization?
Freund, 6
Memmi: Portrait of the Colonizer, 3-76
26: Colonial Changes
Freund, 7
Memmi, Portrait of the Colonized, 79-141
Discussion:
Achebe, Things Fall Apart
April 2: The Era of Decolonization
Freund, 9
The Rise of Nationalism &
Independence
Freund, 10
April 9: Development Issues in Africa
Freund, 10
The Transition from Dictatorship to
Democracy
Freund, 12
16: South Africa and the End of
Apartheid
Freund, 11
Discussion: Towards a
Recolonization?
Pfaff: Europe
Should Go Back to Africa*
Mazrui: Recolonize Africa?*
McGeary & Michaels, Africa
Rising*
April 23: Final Examination