Course Description
The course builds on the foundation from "Introduction to Africa" and provides in-depth and critical analysis of selected contemporary issues affecting Africa. Solidarity, conflict, and their relationships to social hierarchy, the conceptions of history, and African identity then, now plus challenges for Pan-Africanism will dominate the course focus.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be required to write a short research paper
on topics of interest (from the course content) at the end of the
semester instead of the final examination for undergraduate students.
Athena Title
Critical Issues Contemp Africa
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall and spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
The course will provide students with a better, deeper, and clearer understanding of the critical historical & contemporary issues affecting the African continent. More precisely the objectives of the course are: (1) To teach and illustrate to the students contemporary methodologies for the critical examination of historical issues that have shaped and affected the nature and general development of the African continent. (2) To equip the students with tools for analytical review on how contemporary events, such as the formation of the African Union, affect development on the African continent. (3) To provide the students with a better understanding of the historical and contemporary issues surrounding the challenges facing the African continent, particularly in terms of development. (4) To show the students the manner and extent to which the several critical issues affecting the African continent are interrelated. (5) To make the students more receptive of cultural differences between Africans on one hand and Africans and Americans (and Westerners) on the other. Students will be expected to complete assigned readings, keep a journal on contemporary issues about selected African countries, select a country and do an internet reseach on contemporary issues, engage in directed research that will require classroom presentations that will be critiqued by other students. They will also be required to do chapter summaries and prepare two short papers on self selected topics. A final paper on a selected country focus on a contemporary issue will be expected at the end of the semester.
Topical Outline
1. Introduction to Africa and African Studies as an academic field 2. The Pre-colonial legacies: Traditional societies in Africa 3. Linguistic Variation: gains, pains and impact of linguistic diversity on development 4. Ethnic Diversity and Ethnicity in Africa: Ethnic groups, ?Tribe? and nation-states 5. Family, Kinship and Society: Issues of gender, education and social order 6. Colonialism: African and Non-African Perspectives including immediate and later effects on Africa 7. Faith, religion and Social order: Traditional beliefs versus modern faiths 8. Post-colonial mentalities: The African Identity, nationalism and nation building 9. Continental Unity: From OAU to the African Union 10. African Conflicts and conflict resolution 11. Pan-Africanism and the new African world order 12. Case Studies: Economic, Political, Social, and Developmental challenges facing the African continent
Syllabus