final exam lunch date

Dear Students,
I found a place in San Carlos that caters Ethiopian food. We could have lunch on Thursday, 4/25 (Reading Day), at 11:30 am, in our usual classroom, or outside by Tabard Hall if the weather is fine. If this sounds good to you, please leave a comment and include your food constraints. If you've got another idea, put that in the comments, too. If you can't make it or want to suggest a different time, put that in the comments.
All the best,
MF

Recovery? (and Soccer Video)

My apologies for the failure of the video today, just when it was getting good. Here is a link to the whole video on line.

Reminder of due dates: The research paper is due on 4/18, and the film reflections are due on 4/22 (see the Moodle for details).

For Tuesday's class, we will finish our discussion of So Long a Letter. Please make every effort to be on time for class, and let's end the semester on a high note.

We will also discuss the final chapter of the 3rd edition of Africans. For those of you who are using the electronic edition or the 2nd edition, you can download a pdf of the chapter from our class Moodle.

Reading Questions for Chapter 13:

• What happened in Uganda that gave hope that the spread of HIV could be checked? (316)
• What impact did ART have? (317-318)
• What was the cause of the commodity boom in the early 21st century? (318)
• How did China's commercial deals  differ from those of western counties? (319)
• Agrarian problems are threatened in Africa more than anywhere else by what? (327)
• What were some innovations to counter poverty? (328-329)
• What are most tenacious diseases in Africa? (330)
• What is Africa's fundamental medical problem? (330)
• What major problem did youths face? (331) And how did many respond to it? (332)
• Autochthony means native/indigenous. What is the issue with autochthony? (333)
• Contrast the responses of North African and sub-Saharan states to the challenges of radicalized youth and religious controversy? (335)
• What is the Muslim Brotherhood and what is its position? (335
• How did Libya, Morocco, and Algeria respond to Islamists? (336)
• What influences shaped Boko Haram? (338)
• Describe the social inequalities at the root of the Arab Spring? (339)
• How did events of the Arab Spring play out? (339f)
• Who were the main losers? (340)
• What were the main reasons for fertility deline in Africa? (341f)
• Define the "demographic dividend" and what suggests that Africa's will be less than Asia's? (344)

Films, Reading, and Research Assignments

The very short research paper will be due on 4/18 as indicated on the syllabus rather than 4/12 as on the previous blog post. Please submit it on TurnItIn through the class Moodle.

In lieu of a final exam, you will watch and submit written reflections on two of the following three films:

• I am Slave (2010 British, story of one woman's slavery in Sudan and London)
• Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom (2013 British-South African biography)
• War Dance (2007 American documentary about Uganda)

Interesting to note that none of the films you selected were fictional. I strongly encourage you to watch and discuss the films with one or more of your classmates.

Finally, we will discuss Mariama Bâ's novel, So Long a Letter, this Thursday. I am pleased that so many of you today had already finished reading it! It may help you keep track of who's who to check out the list of characters on the Wiki page.

Contemporary Africa

For TUESDAY, 4/9:

We will move forward as gracefully as possible. Please read chapter 7 of Short, and answer in writing the questions from the last class blog post.

Please have a look at the list of "50 Movie Where the Action Takes Place in Africa," and pick three (3) you would be most interested in watching. If you know of another movie that should be included in the list, please share it with the class.

Industrialization and Race

Please read or listen to Born a Crime and read the following chapters for next week.

For Tuesday, be ready to describe a topic and preliminary sources for a short paper (1000-1500 words), which will be due on 4/12.

Reading Questions for Africans, chapter 11 (chapter 12 in kindle and 2nd editions):

• How did the Witwatersrand goldfield differ from the Kimberly diamond mines?
• Why were African miners wages so low?
• How did rural economies and families adapt?
• What were "distinctive features" of South African industrialization?
• Following the Anglo-Boer War (if you don't remember what that is, look it up here), what did the British do to try to retain their supremacy over the Afrikaner South African Republic?
• What was the Group Areas Act of 1950, and what made the government so powerful then?
• Why was mass non-violent nationalism like Gandhi's not successful in South Africa?
• What was the Soweto Uprising of 1976, and why was it important?
• What was the significance of the township revolt of 1984? What were important international developments?
• At the end of the chapter, the author says that there was a deeper reality than confrontation between the races. What was it?

Reading Questions for Short, Chapter 7:

• What happened to the field of African history as "Africa entered a period of prolonged economic downturn and political turmoil"?
• What is it about Africa that makes it seem like the continent is "locked in Permanent crisis"?
• Who is Waa Kamisoko, and how has he adapted his traditional role to modern circumstances? What was most controversial?
• What is the deal with the historical narratives of the Ndebele people? Heroes Day?
• What was the "first major reorientation in the field" of African history in the 1970s?
• What was the legacy of Marxist anthropology?
• Why is witchcraft now a focus of historians?
• What is your reaction to the photograph by the artist Samuel Fosso (figure 29) or the one above?
• Who is Mobutu Sese Seko? check the wiki page
• Who creates the dominant political narrative, and where can alternatives be found?
• What was the mission of African historians after the colonial period?
• What debates arose among historians and where did they mainly play out?
• Explain the issue of the relationship between history and heritage?
• How is the question relevant to the history of the slave trade and of South Africa?

Independent Africa

Please finish reading The River Between, taking advantage of character lists and other guides that can be found on line.

Reading Questions for Short, chapter 6:

• What caused the collapse of colonialism after WW II?
• Which parts of Africa were independent in 1945, in the mid-50s, in the mid-60s?
• What is the debate over the dynamics of decolonization?
• What does the book mean by the "second colonial occupation," and what was its impact?
• What were the "crucibles of change"?
• How did France handle its colonies and colonial subjects after WW II?
• Describe most African politicians of the time and their main challenges.
• What was the South African model and whom did it appeal to?
• What is significant about Algeria's independence?
• What effects did nationalism and anti-colonialism have on the field of African history in the 1950s and 1960s?
• Was the new history useful to African politicians?
• What approaches to African history were more prominent in the French-speaking world?
• How did Congo become "Africa's first Cold War battlefield"?
• What were the goals of most African leaders in the 1960s?
• What happened in the 1970's?

Check out this movie trailer.

Reading Questions for Africans, chapter 12 (chapter 11 in e-version and 2nd edition):

Rapid population growth

• In contrast to population growth between WW I and WW II, what was the main reason for population growth after 1940?
• Modern medicine and what else led to "the most sudden and rapid population growth the world is ever likely to see"?

Liberation

• What effect did the defeated Mau Mau insurrection have on Kenyan politics?
• Contrast the politics of Uganda and Tanganyika.
• Why was support for nationalism so strong in the poorer rural areas of colonies of white settlement?
• How did nationalism effect women?
• How did young men profit from nationalism?

Economic development

• Before the 1970s, what three main directions had economic growth taken in Africa?
• What was the most fundamental reason for economic crisis?
• What role did oil play? (Look at oil producing African countries, too.)
• What did most 1960s economists think was the best way to achieve development?
• What were some of the diverse economic strategies, and why did they all lead to similar crises during the 1980s?
• What replaced labor as the crucial scarce resource?
• Why did extensive drought lead to famine in some countries and not others?

Politics

• What were the three underlying political realities? What compounded the problems?
• What were the two patterns of civil war represented by Sudan and Chad on the one hand and Angola and Mozambique on the other?
• What "bred blatantly ethnic, clientelist, and corrupt politics"?
• Describe the system of ruling elites?
• What three institutions supported ruling elites?
• What did newly independent regimes do in order to dominate society?

Colonial Change 1918-1950

For next week, we will focus on Africans, Chapter 10.  I would like you all to watch the documentary, "Pokot - Children of the Nile," which nicely illustrates the world of The River Between. If you have not read Houseboy, I would like you to read The River Between, or do a really good job of faking it (summaries and studies abound on the internet for this novel).

Reading Questions for Africans, chapter 10:

Economic Change

• What was the major consequence of Africa's colonial period?
• What's a lorry, and what effects did it have?
• What trades grew and which ones collapsed?
• How did agriculture change in this period?
• What were the impediments to capitalism? (p. 224)
• What happened with European agriculture?
• Why did Africans become migrants, and what effects did migration have? (pp. 225ff)
• What were African expectations and realities of urban life?
• What were consequences of the Great Depression in Africa?

Education and Religion

• What was the draw of education?
• What was the main distinction between Indian and African education outcomes?
• Why were young people attracted to Christianity?
• How did Christianity interact with indigenous practices and traditions?
• Why did independent churches come about?
• How did Islam contrast with Christianity in this period? (p. 236)
• How did indigenous religions adapt?
• What kinds of movements became a characteristic of the colonial period?

Political Change

• What transformed Africa's politics?
• Were colonial powers interested in maintaining control or transferring it to Africans?
• What is the Muslim Brotherhood, and where and when was it founded?
• What led to terrorist violence in Tunisia and militant insurrection in Algeria?
• What was the fate of Italy's colonies after after WW II?
• Who is Haile Selassie? Why is he important in Jamaica? Look him up here.
• What were the two major political levels in Africa? Why?
• What/who fostered tribal identities and why?
• Given that "territorial boundaries and identities were colonial creations," what did Africans focus political action on instead?
• Why did WW II focus African politics towards nationalism, and what were the main challenges nationalists faced?
• What was the Mau Mau guerrilla war? Look it up here.
• Why was Britain afraid of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland joining South Africa?

The Family

• How did some young men gain greater freedom, and how did the old respond?
• Did the status of women change? (check region by region)
• Overall was there more change or more continuity in family relationships in the 20th century?

Health and Demography

• What was the most important consequence of colonial occupation?
• What reduced mortality in times of famine?
• What was the focus of European medicine?
• Who were colonial Africa's "chief reservoir of misery"? What was the source of the problem?
• Was increased birthrate or a declining deathrate the dominant mechanism in population growth?
• What reduced infant mortality?