Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
AFST-4354 Issues in Africana Studies - Fall 2008 Virginia Tech - Instructor: Tugrul Keskin
AFST-4354
Issues in Africana Studies - Fall 2008
Sociology of Africa
Imperialism, Colonialism and African Leadership in the 20th century
INSTRUCTOR: TUGRUL KESKIN
Tuesday and Thursday - 3:30 PM - 4:45PM
Surge 107
Office: 521 McBryde Hall Phone: 202-378-8606
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 11:10 – 1:10 PM and by appointment
E-mail: tugrulk@vt.edu (PLEASE include “4354” in the subject line1)
Course Description and Objective
This course will explore the relationship and ongoing dynamics between colonizers and the colonized in 20th century Africa, in the context of post-colonial studies. Nationalist, socialist, anti-colonialist, and Apartheid movements in Africa are each a direct consequence of imperialism and its legacy. In this course, we will try to understand the social, political and economic implications and dimensions of imperialism in the 20th century. Ethnic tensions in Kenya, Apartheid racism in South Africa, the Darfur conflict in Sudan, Christian and Muslim religious misunderstanding in Nigeria, and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda are each related with exploitation and a product of colonialization. Colonialization has created artificial social, political and economic boundaries among African communities, nations and ethnic groups. Whatever conflict we see today in the continent is not because Africans are not capable of enhancing African civilization, but are a product of the colonial political social and economic structures left behind by the colonizers and internalized within Africa.
Africa is a continent that can be characterized by the human sadness, colonialization and hegemony by Western powers, slavery, genocide and poverty which is demonstrated very clearly in Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, The White Men’s Burden. According to some perspectives, even the etymological meaning of ‘Africa’ does not originate from this continent, but is a term created from the outside, by the Romans. The Romans used this term to define the early Berber tribes in Tunisia. According to some social scientists, Berbers are not even from Africa. This orientalist approach goes back many centuries. In this context, the history of Africa does not belong to African Natives and definitely has not been created by African tribes, but belongs to the colonizer/rulers and attributable to the history of this “dark” continent. It is a history written by the hegemonic powers of Western Imperialism.
In this course, we will explore the social, political and economic consequences of colonialism in Africa and the reaction by the African leadership to this intentional imperialism and enslavement of its people. The 20th century marks the emergence of the nation-state and the history of nation building, but not in Africa. Africa was never involved in a process of internal modernization and urbanization parallel to that found in other parts of the world. Africans still hold to their tribal identity and follow traditional ways of life and have never owned a national identity per se, like that of other independent nationalist movements.
African borders were drawn in order to sustain and intensify tribal and ethnic conflict in order to further the exploitation of social, political and economic resources, and to facilitate modern slavery in the 20th century. The rule of divide and conquer is very much demonstrated in the history of this continent, and African leadership has partly failed to resist the ongoing implications of this early enslavement. In summary, we will explore the continuation of early power structures laid in place by the dynamics between the colonizer and colonized that have continued in Africa to this day as a consequence of capitalist expansion and globalization. This is the case even though there is no colonial power in existence now as there was half a century ago. For example, genocide in Rwanda took place in 1994 as a result of tribal ethnic conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis. Before and during the genocide, there was no colonial power in Rwanda, however the colonial structures and mentality left in place by the colonial powers indirectly resulted in mass killing in Rwanda. We can find many such examples in African history that resulted in either genocide and tribal war or Apartheid. In South Africa for example, the white minority ruled the majority and thus a segregated society was created.
In this course, we will also attempt to understand the positions of African leaders from an inside as opposed to an Orientalist perspective; leaders such as the anti- colonialist Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), conservative African Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Idi Amin Dada (Uganda), the pro-African Nationalist Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and South African leader, Nelson Mandela.
One of the main objectives of this course is to build a website which will consist description of as many as possible of the Nationalist, Anti-Colonialist and Socialist Movements and leaders in 20th century Africa. All of your final papers will be used in this website as a direct contribution to African civilization.
Some African Leaders:
Jomo Kenyatta (1889 - 1978)
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972)
Govan Mbeki (1910-2001)
Brian Bunting (1920- )
Baruch Hirson (1921-1999)
Julius Nyerere (1922-1999)
Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973)
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)
Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961)
Joe Slovo (1926-1995)
Walter Rodney (1942-1980)
Agostinho Neto (1922-1979)
George Padmore 1902-1959
C L R James 1901-1988
Required Readings:
1. Franz Fanon. A Dying Colonialism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 1967. ISBN 0802150276, or 9780802150271
2. Basil Davidson. Modern Africa: A Social and Political History. London: Pearson, 1994.
3. Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O’Meara. Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-253-20984-6
Recommended Books:
1. Ifi Amadiume. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture. New York, NY: Zed Book, 2001. 1-85649-534-5
2. Basil Davidson. The African Slave Trade. Boston, MA: 1980. ISBN: 0-316-17438-6
3. Albert Memmi. The Colonizer and Colonized. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1991. ISBN: 978-0-8070-0301-5
4. Kinuthia Macharia and Muigai Kanyua. The Social Context of the Mau Mau Movement in Kenya (1952-1960). Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006. ISBN: 0-7618-3389-7
Recommended Readings:
1. Peter Edgerly Firchow, Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
2. David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire
3. W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, World and Africa: The World and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history
4. Yuri Smertin, Kwame Nkrumah: An original study of the life and work of renowned African Marxist Kwame Nkrumah that draws on key passages in Nkrumah's own writings and those of his contemporaries.
5. Michael Conniff & Thomas Davis, Africans in the Americas: A History of the Black
6. Diaspora (St. Martin’s Press, NY) ISBN 0-312-04254-x
7. Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion (University of Mississippi Press, Jackson)
8. Robin Kelley, Race Rebels, Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (The Free Press, Macmillan)
9. African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation (Hardcover) by Peter J. Schraeder
10. The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence (Paperback) by Martin Meredith
11. Africa: A Biography of the Continent (Paperback) by John Reader
12. Africa and the New World Order (Society and Politics in Africa, Vol 7) by Julius Omozuanvbo Ihonvbere (Paperback - Feb 2000)
13. Issues and Trends in Contemporary African Politics: Stability, Development, and Democratization (Society and Politics in Africa, Vol 1) (Paperback) by George Akeya Agbango
14. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, Homi K. Bhabha, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Richard Philcox (Paperback - Mar 12, 2005)
15. Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon and Constance Farrington (Paperback - Jan 7, 1994)
16. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney 1973
17. Patterns of Islamization and Varieties of Religious Experience among Muslims of Africa by Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Powels
Issues in Africana Studies - Fall 2008
Sociology of Africa
Imperialism, Colonialism and African Leadership in the 20th century
INSTRUCTOR: TUGRUL KESKIN
Tuesday and Thursday - 3:30 PM - 4:45PM
Surge 107
Office: 521 McBryde Hall Phone: 202-378-8606
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 11:10 – 1:10 PM and by appointment
E-mail: tugrulk@vt.edu (PLEASE include “4354” in the subject line1)
Course Description and Objective
This course will explore the relationship and ongoing dynamics between colonizers and the colonized in 20th century Africa, in the context of post-colonial studies. Nationalist, socialist, anti-colonialist, and Apartheid movements in Africa are each a direct consequence of imperialism and its legacy. In this course, we will try to understand the social, political and economic implications and dimensions of imperialism in the 20th century. Ethnic tensions in Kenya, Apartheid racism in South Africa, the Darfur conflict in Sudan, Christian and Muslim religious misunderstanding in Nigeria, and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda are each related with exploitation and a product of colonialization. Colonialization has created artificial social, political and economic boundaries among African communities, nations and ethnic groups. Whatever conflict we see today in the continent is not because Africans are not capable of enhancing African civilization, but are a product of the colonial political social and economic structures left behind by the colonizers and internalized within Africa.
Africa is a continent that can be characterized by the human sadness, colonialization and hegemony by Western powers, slavery, genocide and poverty which is demonstrated very clearly in Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, The White Men’s Burden. According to some perspectives, even the etymological meaning of ‘Africa’ does not originate from this continent, but is a term created from the outside, by the Romans. The Romans used this term to define the early Berber tribes in Tunisia. According to some social scientists, Berbers are not even from Africa. This orientalist approach goes back many centuries. In this context, the history of Africa does not belong to African Natives and definitely has not been created by African tribes, but belongs to the colonizer/rulers and attributable to the history of this “dark” continent. It is a history written by the hegemonic powers of Western Imperialism.
In this course, we will explore the social, political and economic consequences of colonialism in Africa and the reaction by the African leadership to this intentional imperialism and enslavement of its people. The 20th century marks the emergence of the nation-state and the history of nation building, but not in Africa. Africa was never involved in a process of internal modernization and urbanization parallel to that found in other parts of the world. Africans still hold to their tribal identity and follow traditional ways of life and have never owned a national identity per se, like that of other independent nationalist movements.
African borders were drawn in order to sustain and intensify tribal and ethnic conflict in order to further the exploitation of social, political and economic resources, and to facilitate modern slavery in the 20th century. The rule of divide and conquer is very much demonstrated in the history of this continent, and African leadership has partly failed to resist the ongoing implications of this early enslavement. In summary, we will explore the continuation of early power structures laid in place by the dynamics between the colonizer and colonized that have continued in Africa to this day as a consequence of capitalist expansion and globalization. This is the case even though there is no colonial power in existence now as there was half a century ago. For example, genocide in Rwanda took place in 1994 as a result of tribal ethnic conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis. Before and during the genocide, there was no colonial power in Rwanda, however the colonial structures and mentality left in place by the colonial powers indirectly resulted in mass killing in Rwanda. We can find many such examples in African history that resulted in either genocide and tribal war or Apartheid. In South Africa for example, the white minority ruled the majority and thus a segregated society was created.
In this course, we will also attempt to understand the positions of African leaders from an inside as opposed to an Orientalist perspective; leaders such as the anti- colonialist Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), conservative African Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Idi Amin Dada (Uganda), the pro-African Nationalist Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and South African leader, Nelson Mandela.
One of the main objectives of this course is to build a website which will consist description of as many as possible of the Nationalist, Anti-Colonialist and Socialist Movements and leaders in 20th century Africa. All of your final papers will be used in this website as a direct contribution to African civilization.
Some African Leaders:
Jomo Kenyatta (1889 - 1978)
Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972)
Govan Mbeki (1910-2001)
Brian Bunting (1920- )
Baruch Hirson (1921-1999)
Julius Nyerere (1922-1999)
Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973)
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)
Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961)
Joe Slovo (1926-1995)
Walter Rodney (1942-1980)
Agostinho Neto (1922-1979)
George Padmore 1902-1959
C L R James 1901-1988
Required Readings:
1. Franz Fanon. A Dying Colonialism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press, 1967. ISBN 0802150276, or 9780802150271
2. Basil Davidson. Modern Africa: A Social and Political History. London: Pearson, 1994.
3. Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O’Meara. Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-253-20984-6
Recommended Books:
1. Ifi Amadiume. Reinventing Africa: Matriarchy, Religion and Culture. New York, NY: Zed Book, 2001. 1-85649-534-5
2. Basil Davidson. The African Slave Trade. Boston, MA: 1980. ISBN: 0-316-17438-6
3. Albert Memmi. The Colonizer and Colonized. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1991. ISBN: 978-0-8070-0301-5
4. Kinuthia Macharia and Muigai Kanyua. The Social Context of the Mau Mau Movement in Kenya (1952-1960). Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2006. ISBN: 0-7618-3389-7
Recommended Readings:
1. Peter Edgerly Firchow, Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2000.
2. David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire
3. W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, World and Africa: The World and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history
4. Yuri Smertin, Kwame Nkrumah: An original study of the life and work of renowned African Marxist Kwame Nkrumah that draws on key passages in Nkrumah's own writings and those of his contemporaries.
5. Michael Conniff & Thomas Davis, Africans in the Americas: A History of the Black
6. Diaspora (St. Martin’s Press, NY) ISBN 0-312-04254-x
7. Manning Marable, Race, Reform, and Rebellion (University of Mississippi Press, Jackson)
8. Robin Kelley, Race Rebels, Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (The Free Press, Macmillan)
9. African Politics and Society: A Mosaic in Transformation (Hardcover) by Peter J. Schraeder
10. The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence (Paperback) by Martin Meredith
11. Africa: A Biography of the Continent (Paperback) by John Reader
12. Africa and the New World Order (Society and Politics in Africa, Vol 7) by Julius Omozuanvbo Ihonvbere (Paperback - Feb 2000)
13. Issues and Trends in Contemporary African Politics: Stability, Development, and Democratization (Society and Politics in Africa, Vol 1) (Paperback) by George Akeya Agbango
14. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, Homi K. Bhabha, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Richard Philcox (Paperback - Mar 12, 2005)
15. Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon and Constance Farrington (Paperback - Jan 7, 1994)
16. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney 1973
17. Patterns of Islamization and Varieties of Religious Experience among Muslims of Africa by Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Powels
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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