This course offers students the tools they need to understand current events in Africa from a historical perspective. The issues that define African politics today are shaped by the economic, political, and social changes that attended the 19th and 20th centuries. Any student of political science, economics, psychology, business, or literature who wishes to understand Africa must study its history, for that history sets the stage for the present. The course will begin by examining how wide-ranging processes--the slave trade, colonial rule, nationalism, independence--transformed the social and political lives of African people.  In the middle part of the course, we will explore the dynamics of human rights in contemporary Africa, using a detailed study of a recent court trial in Kenya. Toward the end of the semester, we’ll study a series of current issues—the political crisis in Zimbabwe; the Rwanda genocide; the end of apartheid in South Africa—in relation to longer-term histories. The core reading will be a set of “primary” documents dealing with issues addressed in lectures. By the end of the course, students will have learned how to interpret evidence, synthesize disparate sources, and create compelling arguments about the relation between past and present.  This course satisfies the ‘Race and Ethnicity’ requirement.

Course Requirements:

Map quiz; three short (3-5 page) essays; and one longer (7-8 pages) essay.

Intended Audience:

This is an introductory course. Anyone interested in the history of modern Africa is welcome.

Class Format:

Lecture, with films and general discussion, twice a week; and seminar-style discussion in sections once a week.