Course Description
Topics in modern and ancient African history. Non-traditional methodologies and sources are combined to introduce students to emerging issues in African history.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will produce a research essay based on primary sources or on a historiographical issue.
Athena Title
STUDIES AFRICAN HIS
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This is an advanced course on the history of West Africa. Its primary goal is to provide the students with a framework for interpreting African history, based on a critical reading of primary and secondary sources. The second goal is to help students develop their analytical skills and to express their analyses in verbal debate and formal essays. The course assumes no prior background in African history. This course requires students: 1. to read carefully the assigned texts by the dates provided in the syllabus. 2. to come to class prepared to discuss the readings. 3. to analyze assigned texts in class discussions and in formal essays, based upon an interpretive assessment of evidence presented in readings and lectures. 4. to demonstrate mastery of current course readings in short written exams. 5. to identify and analyze the major debates in West African history in a final essay exam
Topical Outline
This course surveys West African history and then examines in detail a few selected societies. It will focus on the following issues: the rise of West African states; the spread of Islam; the Atlantic slave trade; and European conquest and colonialism, and the era of African independence. In addition to academic interpretations of history, the course will examine carefully primary sources from several genres. These include Medieval North African documents in translation, the narratives of Africans sold into Atlantic slavery, twentieth-century West African epic poetry, and historical novels.
Syllabus