coursemapLoading course
School of History · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
This course will examine the African experience and its diasporic extension in transoceanic and comparative historical frameworks. The course will encourage students to challenge preconceived notions that are attributed to African and Afro-descendant societies. Understanding the diversity of African cultures requires that we decolonize history, and reconsider Eurocentric assumptions about the nature of society, politics, and the identity inherited from European models and the Atlantic slave trade. Due to the complexity and size of the African continent, as well as the diversity of its diaspora, the course is not intended to cover the whole of African history. We will examine race, gender, and religion as central issues in precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial contexts for both the continent and its diasporic peripheries. The course aims to study the connections between African cultures and their refraction in Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Brazil and the United States. We will also examine historical events, including the impact of missionaries, the transatlantic slave trade and large-scale slavery, that led to the creation of a forced diaspora and the breakdown of traditional African thought on the continent and its refraction in the diaspora.
Primary Source exhibition (1000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3
Research Essay (1500 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3
Take-Home Exam (2500 - 3000 words)
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Tutorial Participation/Group Oral Presentation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Lecture & Tutorial Discussion Forum
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorial and tutorial-like activities; and b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing. Other Information List of Weekly Topics: 1 Introducing Africa in Global History 2 Legacy of the Classic Empires: Kemet, Songhai, Ashante 3 Kongo Kingdom: Christianising Bakongo ́souls 4 Gender in Dahomey and Yoruba societies 5 Atlantic Slave Trade and the modernity of the enslaved subject 6 Saint Domingue/ Haiti: First Black Revolution sealed by Voodoo 7 Brazil, between Candomblé and Quranic schools 8 Calabar in Cuba: Abakuá legacy 9 Scramble for Africa 10 Decolonizing Africa: between Frank Fanon and Ama Ata Aidoo 11 Between Literature and Arts: representation of the racialized body 12 Contemporary African and Afrodescendant movements: from Mau Mau to Black Live Matter
Aidoo, A. A. (1997). Our sister killjoy. Longman Publishing Group Chinua, A. (2021). Things fall apart. de la Fuente, A., & Andrews, G. R. (Eds.). (2018). Afro-Latin American Studies: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. Isichei, E. (2004). The religious traditions of Africa: A history. Westport, CT. Publisher: Praeger. Falola, T. (2002). Key events in African history: A reference guide. Greenwood Publishing Group. Oyewùmí, O. (1997). The invention of women: Making an African sense of western gender discourses. U of Minnesota Press. Preliminary Reading Abbink, G. J., De Bruijn, M., & Van Walraven, K. (Eds.). (2003). Rethinking resistance: revolt and violence in African history (Vol. 2). Brill. Achebe, C. (1994). Things Fall Apart. 1958. New York: Anchor, 178. Amadiume, I. (2015). Male daughters, female husbands: Gender and sex in an African society. Zed Books Ltd. Appiah, A., & Gates, H. L. (Eds.). (2005). Africana: The encyclopedia of the African and African American experience. Oxford University Press, USA. Buck-Morss, S. (2009). Hegel, Haiti, and universal history. University of Pittsburgh Pre. Cabrera, L. (2004). Afro-Cuban Tales. U of Nebraska Press. Césaire, A. (2001). Discourse on colonialism. NYU Press. Dayan, J. (1998). Haiti, History, and the Gods. 1995. Berkeley: U of California P, 2000-13. Fanon, F. (2007). The wretched of the earth. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Gilbert, E., & Reynolds, J. T. (2004). Africa in world history: From prehistory to the present. Prentice-Hall. Gilroy, P. (1993). The black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness. Harvard University Press. Hartman, S. (2008). Lose your mother: A journey along the Atlantic slave route. Macmillan. Isichei, E. (1997). A history of African societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press. James, C. L. R. (2001). The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. Penguin UK. Linebaugh, P., & Rediker, M. (2013). The many-headed hydra: Sailors, slaves, commoners, and the hidden history of the revolutionary Atlantic. Beacon Press. McAlister, E. (2002). Rara!: vodou, power, and performance in Haiti and its diaspora. Univ of California Press. McEvedy, C. (1995). The Penguin atlas of African history (revised edition). Miller, I. L. (2010). Voice of the leopard: African secret societies and Cuba. Univ. Press of Mississippi. Palmié, S. (2002). Wizards and scientists: explorations in Afro-Cuban modernity