This course explores the complexity of African societies and historical events. It is an introduction to the variety of cultures, political organizations, social structures, and artistic expressions created by Africans over a broad time span, beginning with human origins in Africa and ending at the turn of the nineteenth century. This course does not seek to be comprehensive or to construct a complete chronology of events across an entire continent. Instead we will explore a series of issues that highlight themes and processes important for understanding history in Africa. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Africa and has no prerequisites.
Course Goals
- To introduce students to the great time depth and complexity of human history in Africa.
- To give students a holistic understanding of the historical processes in Africa.
- To introduce various approaches to analyzing and interpreting past events. This quarter we will pay particular attention to the differences between “popular” and “scholarly” knowledge, and the conduits for distributing that information.
- To encourage students to engage with the fundamentals of history as a discipline.
- To enhance critical reading and thinking skills, as well as to acquire new skills for analysis and interpretation.
Critical Questions
- What constitutes society? Culture? Does it change over time or across space?
- What characteristics do many cultures share—within Africa and beyond? What characteristics differentiate societies from their neighbors?
- How do human constructions (society and culture) interact with geography and other environmental factors?
- What connects various regions of the continent? What characteristics make various regions distinct?
- What roles do race, class, gender, and generation play in social, economic, and political relationships?
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe kinship relationships, political structures, belief systems, and economic patterns of at least four different African societies before 1800. [chronology; change and continuity over time, argumentation; use of evidence]
- Identify major turning points in early African history, and explain the reasons for those changes [causation; change and continuity over time; periodization; interpretation]
- Evaluate the importance of race, class, gender, and generation [agency & structure; causation; argumentation; interpretation]
- Evaluate and demonstrate the utility of different kinds of historical evidence [argumentation, use of evidence, interpretation]
- Demonstrate improved writing ability evaluated in terms of a clearly articulated thesis statement, coherent paragraph structure, and correct grammar