Africa / African Diaspora

After the Second World War, the winds of change blew across Africa. Africans sought to end instead of reform the colonial project, and European nations lost the will and the financial wherewithal to maintain their African empires. This course examines the end of empire in Africa, investigating the ideologies that drove independence movements as well as the myriad challenges these new nations faced, including the role of African "tradition" in the face of "modernity," the economic structure of the nation, citizenship, international relations, mitigating the effects of the colonial presence, and the "success" of decolonization. Reading assignments, discussion, a research paper and its presentation to the class are required. May be taken for credit the Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies major or minor.

Prof. Woodfork, 4 credits, MW 2:30-3:50pm

-Fulfills Cultural Pluralism, Social Sciences, and/or Studying the Past distribution, as well as IRES and Global Studies electives.

-History major: modern history; Empires & Colonialism; Revolution/War/Politics; Social Justice

Africa, the Americas, and Europe came together during the 15th century in ways that drove the world economy and engendered enormous cultural change. The collision of cultures, in their fracturing and recreation, gave birth to new religions, intellectual discourses, culinary and musical forms, as well as new ways of acquiring and wielding power. In the often-uncomfortable spaces created by the intersection of imperialism, capitalism, and race, competing narratives of political and economic growth were tempered by the realities of violence, coerced labor, and racial taxonomies. The people who ceaselessly toiled in sugarcane and cotton fields as well as the people who kept them there created voodoo, gumbo, jazz, and the political and social revolutions that forever affected the three corners of the Black Atlantic. Reading assignments of primary and secondary sources, discussion, a research paper and its presentation to the class are required. Offered every other year.

Prof. Woodfork, 4 credits, TTh 11:30am-12:50pm

-Fulfills Cultural Pluralism, Social Science distribution, as well as IRES and Global Studies electives.

-History major: Cultures & Ideas; Empires & Colonialism; Social Justice; Before Modernity

Description coming soon!

Prof. Woodfork, 4 credits, MWF 10-10:50am

-Fulfills Social Science distribution.

-History major: modern history; Cultures & Ideas; Empires & Colonialism

The colonial era was a brief period (c. 1885-1990) in Africa's long and complex past, but it is the era that defines the continent's major historical periods. In examining the colonial period, we will seek to complicate our notions of resistance and complicity, looking at how Africans negotiated their lives, constantly trying to preserve what mattered most while adapting to the realities of life under imperial rule. For Europeans, Africa was often as much a fantasy as a reality, a playground built on shifting sands of fear and control. Europeans were not omnipotent conquerors, but rather interlopers who had to cajole and reach deals with Africans to achieve results (which were sometimes not what they had intended). Of particular concern is what people thought and learned about each other and how they used what they knew to create policies and regulate interactions. We will investigate theories of colonial rule, the reactions of Africans to imperialism, sites of interaction including the household and the bedroom, and the end of the colonial era. Reading assignments, discussion, a research paper and its presentation to the class are required. Offered every other year.

Prof. Woodfork, 4 credits, MW 1-2:20pm

-Fulfills Cultural Pluralism, Social Science, Power & Equity, and/or Studying the Past distribution, as well as IRES and Global Studies requirements.

-History major: modern history; Empires & Colonialism; Social Justice

After the Second World War, Africans no longer sought to reform the colonial project, they wanted it to end. At the same time, European nations reluctantly lost the will and the financial wherewithal to maintain their African empires. Both groups, for different reasons, looked for a way out of the imperial project. While the metropoles searched for ways to maintain the benefits of empire without the formal structures, African leaders looked to the rebirth of their lands as independent nations. While African independence movements have often been thought of as actions with no supporting bodies of thought, this is far from the truth. This seminar explores how African political leaders strove to liberate and recreate their lands and the ideological bases they developed in response to many challenges including how to accomplish decolonization, the role of African "tradition" in the face of "modernity," the economic structure of the nation, citizenship, international relations, and mitigating the effects of the colonial past. Not open to first-year students. Recommended prerequisite: History 299.

Prof. Woodfork, 4 credits, TTh 1-2:20pm

-History major: 39x seminar; modern history