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)?