Sunday, January 6, 2019

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?
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3 comments:

  1. Aiza's Blog of FoodJanuary 9, 2019 at 2:50 PM

    Hey Classmates! In regards to the books needed prior to midterm, I wanted to help you guys out a bit.

    I found the books downloadable and here are the links

    https://www.scarsdaleschools.k12.ny.us/cms/lib5/NY01001205/Centricity/Domain/202/Sundiata.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2rVDWvk090PqXidg3HbdPQBXt3rXf5eq661TAZ1Sq7KIH6hG1puxWhvD4

    The above is for Sundiata. However, it cuts the last 4 or 5 chapters out. I will update as soon as I find a complete link.

    https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmrskrabill.weebly.com%2Fuploads%2F2%2F1%2F5%2F1%2F21518086%2Fthings_fall_apart--_full_text.pdf%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0H--REjEoHCShYV-iePAFXjOdDCaluKh-H-ymKJjo9bddcrUbrNZRbpzI&h=AT1jbSULTyNsXJL5-brb9esN3g7bpdrq-MTCIy_4_09qQOQaEZxxdP4HAAWrTz6A98hsfZpEcZyIi_4lZpOMp-94n4UmC7VEvfkA3T_FMSnb1MRAM5D7BfWyWrvUUmBAvdbvuw

    The above is for Things Fall Apart and from skimming, it was the full novel.

    I was able to find an e-book version of the Africa Short Intro book on Google Play for $6 and the graphic novel Abina I found used for $3.50 - $3.99 on the Barnes and Noble Website (I believe shipping is roughly around $5).

    For those wanting a fun way to learn the countries of Africa, below this is a link to a youtube video that I found very useful.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xsi9Pzvm8Y

    Hope this helps :) See you in class tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aiza's Blog of FoodJanuary 9, 2019 at 9:16 PM

    Hey guys just an idea....

    Anyone interested in taking a little field trip as a group to the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco?

    $5 for students and Free for military with valid ID

    We can go on a weekend that everyone is free and discuss this in class at some point.

    I think it will be interesting.

    So who's in?

    ReplyDelete
  3. imsamlouieJanuary 17, 2019 at 12:57 AM

    Sunday Jan 27 works for me.

    ReplyDelete

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