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?

Colonialism

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break! While I'm marking all your beautiful midterm exams, please read Houseboy. The novel is not very long and is available as an ebook but not as an audiobook.

Please also read Short for Tuesday, and Africans for Thursday.

Reading Questions for Short, Chapter 5:

• How was colonial rule in Africa different from colonial rule in Latin America?
• How has the study of the colonial period changed?
• What are the "key facts" about European conquest?
• Who resisted the Europeans? (see also AFRICANS, p. 201)
• What/who facilitated the conquest?
• What's special about Ethiopia?
• What was the Maji Maji rebellion? (see also AFRICANS, p. 202)
• The "first successful human rights campaign of the 20th century" targeted what?
• What impact did WW I have?
• How did French and British approaches to controlling colonies differ?
• Why did some Africans embrace colonialism?
• How did Europeans run Africa "on the cheap"?
• What caused widespread social change? (p. 106)
• Define "ornamentalism."
• What explains, in part, the political authoritarianism of contemporary Africa?

Reading Questions for Africans, Chapter 9:

• How did Britain manipulate other European countries (p. 196) and interests (p. 197) in Africa?
• What brought about the Anglo-Boer War and what were its outcomes and costs?
• Who made up most colonial armies? (p. 199)
• What was more burdensome than taxes?
• Who were the most powerful Africans in colonial Africa? (pp. 205f)
• What did European governments handle and what did they leave to private enterprise? (p. 209)
• Which region experienced the most brutal exploitation and why?
• What effect did railroad building have?
• Why was famine such an issue during the early colonial period?

Midterm Exam

Our midterm exam will be in two parts: a map quiz in class on Thursday and a two-question take home exam due in TurnItIn.com through the Moodle before midnight on Friday, March 1st. 

For the take home exam you will

(1) Create an outline of the history of slavery in pre-colonial Africa based on information found in the assigned readings (Textbooks and Abina).

(2) Give a thoughtful response to the question of whether or not the Atlantic slave trade has been given too much prominence.

We will use Tuesdays' class to clarify the questions and review the relevant material.

Nineteenth Century & Regional Diversity

This coming week we will look at different regions of Africa in the period just before full scale European colonization in Africans, chapter 8 on Tuesday. On Thursday we will discuss the important classic, Things Fall Apart.  Lucky for us, we have a nice long rainy weekend to put our feet up with a good book!

Check out this map (it is particularly pertinent for this chapter).

Reading Questions for Africans, Chapter 8:

• Northern Africa: What was the chief reason for demographic stagnation? 
• How did Muhammed Ali change Egypt? What did the British do about it? 
• What did a strong Egypt mean for the Sudan?
• What was notable about Ethiopia in this period?
• Why did the French invade Algeria? What were the initial effects of the conquest?
• How did attempts to modernize effect Tunisia and Morocco?

• The West African Savanna: This was a period of political fragmentation but huge growth in what?
• What was the most important event in nineteenth-century West Africa?
• Why was the Sokoto Caliphate able to endure?
• What made Hausaland the most prosperous region in tropical Africa?
• How did slavery there contrast with South African estate slavery?

• Southern Africa: Who created a large Zulu kingdom, and how did he do it? 
• In contrast, how did the Sotho-Tswana people overcome segmentation? How did they resist white aggression?
• How was the Lesotho kingdom created?
• Why did the Britain introduce 5000 British settlers into the Eastern Cape in 1820?
• What was the "Great Trek"? 
• What is "Cape liberalism"?
• How did the Africans view missionaries? What about the Zulu king?
• What may have aided growth in South Africa?
• How did the discovery of diamonds change the political situation?

• Eastern Africa: What role did the Oman play in East Africa and what effect did it have on Swahili culture? 
• What were the main imports and exports, and how were they transported?
• Why did Livingstone say that eastern Africa was the open sore of the world?
• What beneficial effects did long-distance trade have?
• What was most responsible for population decline?
• What was the context for the ensuing colonial rule of Africa?

Atlantic Slave Trade

Advanced notice!: For Thursday's class, please read Abina and the Important Men, a copy of which will be on reserve in the library by tomorrow morning. There are no reading prompts, but I think you will find this graphic novel easy to tackle.

For Tuesday's class please read Africans, Chapter 7, and Short, Chapter 4, and be able to answer the following questions (p. 2nd edition/3rd edition). 

Reading Questions, Part I (Africans, Chapter 7):

1. Slavery had existed in Africa as a response to what shortage? (p. 133/135)
2. What kind of societies in Africa refused to participate in the slave trade and resisted slavery the most? (p. 133/137)
3. Why did the Portuguese start trading in slaves? (p. 133/137)
4. Why did the King of Kongo try to back out of the trade and what was the response? (p. 134/138)
5. Why in 1524 did the Portuguese begin shipping slaves directly to the Americas? (p. 134/138)
6. What sources are used to determine the numbers of slaves exported from Africa? (p. 135/138)
7. Why did slave trading boom in the mid 17th century? (p. 135/139)
8. What percentage of exported slaves went to the Caribbean? Brazil? North America? (p. 135/139)
9. How could someone become a slave? (p. 136f./140f.)
10. Who sold slaves? (p. x/141)
11. What were slaves traded for? (pp. 138f./142)
12. What percentage of enslaved people died before they even started to work as slaves? (p. 139/143)
13. What is the estimated demographic impact of the slave trade on Africa? (pp. 141f./145)
14. Describe the conflict between mercantile kingdoms like the Wolof and Islam. (pp. 143f./148f.)
15. Tell us about Asante (pp. x/151ff.) and Dahomey (p. x/153)
16. Did the trade effect Western Africa's economic development? Why or why not? (p. 150/154)
17. How did the trade influence religion and medicine? What is the Lemba society? (pp. 151f/156f.)
18. What European nation abolished the trade, and what did they do to enforce the ban? (pp. 152f./157f.)
19. Was the transition to legitimate (non-slave) trade entirely beneficial? (pp. 154ff./157ff.)
20. Why did the Kongo Kingdom embrace Christianity? (pp. 158f/164)
21. How were the coastal colonies created, and what role did education play in them? (p. x/167). This last section helps illustrate what you will be reading in Abina and the Important Men.

Reading Questions, Part II (Short, Chapter 4):

1. "How does the history of Africa fit into that of the rest of the world?"
2. Describe two examples of how Islam and Christianity were integrated into local African cultures.
3. What do the Atlantic slave trade and the Islamic slave trade have in common, and how do they differ?
4. Would you agree that the Atlantic slave trade has been given too much prominence? (p. 81)
5. What are two things make Baquaqua' narrative unusual/unique?
6. Why should the idea of diaspora include Africa itself? (p. 85)
7. What is notable about the Sokoto caliphate? (p. 88)
8. What changed the balance of power in many regions? (p. 89)
9. How do the four themes of this chapter illustrate the trick of "getting the balance right" between the agency of Africans and the impact of global forces (done/done to)?

Sundiata (and Colonizing Eastern & Southern Africa)

There is no class on Thursday, 1/31, so please take this opportunity to catch up on the readings from the last blog post. We will focus on Sundiata on Tuesday and move on to Eastern and Southern Africa on Thursday.

All students must submit written answers to the reading questions for Sundiata through Moodle before Tuesday's class.

For Thursday's class, we will tackle the first part of Africans, Chapter 6 (pp. 100-126 in the 2nd edition and Kindle; pp. 103-130 in the 3rd edition).

Reading Questions (add ~3 pages if using the 3rd edition):

• What four central themes does the history of southern and eastern Africa share with western Africa?
• How does their history differ and why? (record, values, environment, interactions)
• What role does pastoralism play in the east and south? How does it affect settlement, society, and culture?
• fissiparation? (p. 103)
• What complex changes took place in what is now Zimbabwe? (p. 103f)
• Describe Great Zimbabwe. (pp. 104f. and 121f.)
• How did the kingdom of Munhumutapa interact with the Portuguese? (p. 105)
• Why were cattle less important in Central Africa?
• Describe Luba and the two major political systems it shaped.
• What could people do to keep their rulers in line?
• In the East African savanna, what were the Bantu up to, and where did the Maasai come from?
• What evidence is there for the region being stateless? (p. 109)
• How did cattle give their owners a demographic advantage? (pp. 109 and 118)
• In the Great Lakes region of East Africa states like Bunyoro and Buganda developed later. How did those states operate, and how did they reduce succession problems?
• How does the author say the distinction between Tutsi and Hutu may have evolved? (p. 111)
• What new crops were adopted in eastern and southern Africa, and where did they come from?
• "Human mobility was the essence of this empty world" -- list reasons people might move. (p. 114)
• What precautions were taken against the risk of famine, and what increased mortality in famine years? Who rarely suffered famine? (p. 116)
• What does the Zulu proverb, "the feud is in the testicle," mean? (p. 118)
• Did southern African women have a lower or higher status than western African women? Why? What about the women of Central Africa? (p. 119)
• Why did patriarchal, cattle-owning societies have severe generational tension, and how did they handle it? (p. 120)
• Was slavery more or less common in eastern and southern Africa than in West Africa? (p. 120)
• Why was trade more limited in southern and eastern African than in West Africa? (p. 122)
• How did San and Khoikhoi religion differ from Bantu religion? (pp. 124f.)

Colonizing Western Africa

There will be no class on Thursday, 1/31, so we will have to be efficient on Tuesday! That being said, I recommend breaking up the reading to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Reading Questions for AFRICANS, Chapter 5, pp. 63-82:

• What populations drifted/migrated southward into western Africa, and what led them to do it?
• What pattern did population clusters take?
• What were obstacles to population growth? (pp. 67-69)
• What strategies were used to overcome these obstacles?
• Define kafu and describe the constraints on political consolidation. (pp. 71ff)
• How were slaves and horses important to the Hausa? (pp. 75-78)
• "Microstates" seem to have been the rule in the western forest, except in the northwest--why? (p. 81)
• What was unusual about the Kongo kingdom in the equatorial forest? (p. 82)

Reading Questions for AFRICANS, Chapter 5, pp. 83-99:

• How did trade move through western Africa?
• What was the most important product transported by long-distance trade and who traded it?
• What did Hausa traders use as currency? What were its advantages and limitations?
• What craft specialization was most advanced? Who introduced it? Why couldn't it compete in the Atlantic economy (after 1450)?
• How and why was a distinction made between the cultivated and the wild in western African culture and religion?
• What are the main features of indigenous religions in western Africa?
• How did Islam and indigenous religions interact?
• What distinctive family structures existed in western Africa? Why?
• How was generational conflict created and what were the consequences of it?
• What is "mankala" and were you familiar with it before reading this chapter?

Reading Questions for Sundiata:

• What is the role and status of a griot?
• What if any significant role do women play in the story of Sundiata?
• Where and when do the events of the story take place?
• What roles do religion and magic play in the story?
• How connected or aware of a larger world is the storyteller?
• What is the family structure of the king of Mali?
• How does one kingdom interact with another? 
• What are external and internal threats to peace?
• Overview of social structure can be found in note 37.
• Can you outline the basic story?

Identity plus Christianity & Islam

Reading Questions for Diversity, Unity, and most importantly, Identity (SHORT, chapter 2)

• What is it that makes a "makes a nonsense of pseudo-scientific theories of racial difference"? (Are you familiar with some of the theories?) 
• In what ways are African people diverse? (pull from 4 paragraphs that follow the above quoted text)
• The variations are a consequence of what historical processes? (last paragraph p. 28)
• Define "Maghrib." What might being North African mean? (p. 29ff)
• What is meant by "A historian's definition of 'Africa' is necessarily broad and unracialized"?
• With all this diversity, where can we find unity or "interconnectedness"?
• Who wrote the first serious continent-wide history of Africa?
• What is Afrocentrism and what are the book's arguments against it?
• How did Zulu and Yoruba identities develop?
• What are problems with the concept/term "tribe"?
• Who are the Tutsi and Hutu?
• How did the Mukogodo become Maasai?

Reading Questions for Christianity & Islam (AFRICANS, chapter 4)

• How did Christianity come to Egypt and how popular was it (% of population)? 
• Define "Coptic" (language and religion).
• What is Aksum (or Axum)? Ga'ez?
• Why did Nubian Christianity not last the way Ethiopian Christianity has? (See image below for clue.)
• What helped the Muslims conquer Egypt?
• How may Egyptians were still Christians by the 14th century? Why?
• What role did Berbers play in the spread and practice of Islam (p. 43f) and in trans-Saharan trade (p. 52)?
• Why did trans-Saharan trade grow so fast in the early Islamic period?
• Describe Old Jenne (Jenne-jeno).
• What is the relationship between religion and trade in West and East Africa?
• What "created the basic pattern of the modern northern Sudan"?
• What effects did partial isolation have on Ethiopian religion?

You might want to get started with Sundiata this week!

History and Archaeology

Reading Questions AFRICANS, Chapters 1-3:

(1) The frontiersmen of mankind

According to Iliffe, what are the central themes of African history?
Why was Africa underpopulated until the later 20th century?
What effects did the African environment have on ideologies and social organization?
How did European innovations lead to the late 20th century crisis in Africa?
What is "the thread that ties African history together"?
Besides archaeological evidence, what can we use to uncover the pre-literate past?

(2) The emergence of food-producing communities

What are the important developments of the Microlithic period?
List the four ancient language families of Africa and who spoke them.
What led some Africans to begin producing food? What food? When?
Describe the expansion/dispersal of Bantu speakers.

(3) The impact of metals

Don't look for very much about metals until page 33.
Why did so little Egyptian culture spread to the rest of the continent?
What's so important about Iron for Sub-Saharan Africa?

The True Size of Africa

Welcome to Africa!

Please create a blog for this class, using blogger preferably, and send me the URL (address) of the blog by Wednesday. Your first post of about 150 words is due by 11:59pm on Wednesday.

The first reading assignment is Chapter 1 of African History: A Very Short Introduction (aka Short). One copy of the book is now on two-hour reserve in the library.

Please read the chapter, "The idea of Africa," and be able to answer the following questions:

• What are some of the main issues, problems, and debates in studying African history?
• Why is the academic field of African history so new?
• When did inhabitants of African start thinking of themselves as Africans and why?
• What regions are sometimes included and sometimes left out of African history textbooks and why? (define "diaspora")
• Roughly describe "how Africa looks" (topology and ecology, map 1)
• What has contributed to "Africa's historically low population levels"?
• What is "the most persistent popular myth about the African landscape"? Can you think of examples not listed in the chapter?
• How long has the Sahara been a desert and what has been the effect?
• BIG IMPORTANT QUESTION: What is the history and significance of Jenne-jeno?