Sociology of Africa

Friday, November 2, 2012

SOCIOLOGY OF AFRICA

INTL 372 -Winter 2013

Monday and Wednesday 2:00-3:50 PM

This course can be petitioned to receive University Studies Credit

Uzodinma Iweala (2007), a Nigerian-born author and physician, wrote an astonishing article in the Washington Post, titled “Stop Trying To ‘Save’ Africa” in which he argues that the slogans of western humanitarianism, such as “save Darfur,” “stop genocide in Sudan” or sloganeering to save “starving black children” in Africa are a result of a region wracked by guilt at the humanitarian crises it has created in the Middle East, and so the West has turned to Africa for redemption. This fantasy of saving Africa materializes within liberal academic discourse, yet often does not reflect a clear picture of the continent, and often ignores the creative mind of African thinkers such as DuBois, Fanon, Nkrumah, Lumumba, Nyerere, Nathan Hare, Maulana Karenga and many others. In this course, we explore the social and political transformations of modern Africa in the 20th century. We will also look at how neoliberalism is shaping the power structures in the African continent.

Required Reading:
Richard Dowden. 2010. Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles. Preseus Book/Public Affairs.. Padraig Carmody. 2011. The New Scramble for Africa. Polity Press.
Basil Davidson. 1995. Modern Africa: A Social and Politicl History. Longman.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The Lion's Song: An Interview with Zimbabwean Afropop legend, Thomas Mapfumo - Portland Monthly Magazine, February 2012

The Lion's Song

Nearly a decade ago, Afropop legend Thomas Mapfumo fled Zimbabwe for Eugene, fearing retribution for his songs blasting government repression. Now the iconic singer is reemerging with an ambitious album recorded in the heart of the Willamette Valley.

By Eric Hansen

http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/arts-and-entertainment/articles/thomas-mapfumo-lions-song-february-2012/#

Welcome to the 22nd Cascade Festival of African Films February 3 – March 3, 2012

Welcome to the 22^nd Cascade Festival of African Films

February 3 – March 3, 2012

http://www.africanfilmfestival.org/

Free and open to the public on a first-come, first-seated basis

We are very pleased to present a variety of feature and documentary films from the African continent. The majority of films were made by African directors. The films celebrate Africa’s achievements, expose Africa’s failures, and reveal the possibilities for change and a more hopeful future. They show us pictures of Africa through the eyes of Africans, rather than a vision of Africa that is packaged primarily for western viewers. The films represent African concerns that are political, historical, and social. This year’s films cover a wide range of themes and topics, including political oppression and the desire for freedom; the new African diaspora and issues of immigration, assimilation and identity; violence, revenge, peace and reconciliation; onion farming in Niger; the ancient history and manuscripts of Timbuktu; art, culture and music; love and marriage; and the struggle for women’s and children’s rights.

We view film as a medium for artistic expression and illumination. These films were chosen on the basis of their quality as film and their ability to captivate and move audiences. We also chose them because they represent different countries and cultures and a range of lifestyles from pre-colonial to modern times, including both rural and urban settings. Although it is impossible to represent a whole continent with only a few films, it is our hope that through this annual film series we will encourage American viewers to become interested in African cultures and to study them further.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Short Analytical Paper: Recommended Novels - Africa

Introduction to African Studies

INTL/BST 211 / UNST 233

(Africana, Africa and Black Studies from an Afrocentric Perspective)

Instructor: Tugrul Keskin

Office: 333 East Hall International Studies

Cell Phone: 202-378-8606

Office Hours: Tuesday 1:00 - 4:00 PM or by appointment

E-mail: tugrulkeskin@pdx.edu (PLEASE include “African Studies” in the subject line)

Mentor: Murna Majam (Moornah) - E-mail: murna@pdx.edu

Short Analytical Papers: In this requirement, you will select a novel written by a famous African novelist, and will review (summarize and critique) the novel based on our textbooks and our class discussions and present in the class for five to ten minutes. This paper should be at least 2000 words in length. You will find a list of recommended novels and novelists below. You must provide a word count at the end of your paper. The paper is due on March 5^th by midnight.

Please check the list below, select a book from this list, and then send Murna Majam (Mentor Session Assistant) an e-mail murna@pdx.edu specifying on which book you would like to write your review.

Recommended Novels - Africa

1. Things Fall Apart: A Novel by Chinua Achebe

2. The God of Small Things: A Novel by Arundhati Roy

3. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe

4. Facing Mount Kenya by Jomo Kenyatta

5. No Sweetness Here and Other Stories by Ama Ata Aidoo

6. A Grain of Wheat (African Writers Series) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

7. Tsotsi: A Novel by Athol Fugard

8. So Long a Letter (African Writers Series) by Mariama B

9. Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

10. Purple Hibiscus: A Novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

11. The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

12. Efuru (African Writers) by Flora Nwapa

13. Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

14. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

15. God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane

16. July's People by Nadine Gordimer

17. Mother to Mother (Bluestreak) by Sindiwe Magona

18. Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

19. Girls at War by Chinua Achebe

20. One is Enough (African Women Writers Series) by Flora Nwapa

21. Xala by Ousmane Sembene

22. Khabzela: The Life and Times of a South African by Liz McGregor

23. The Slave Girl: A Novel by Buchi Emecheta

24. Never Again (Africa Women Writers Series) by Flora Nwapa

25. African Perspectives on Colonialism (The Johns H... by A. Adu Boahen

26. Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo

27. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Revised Edition) (Lon... by D T Niane

28. African Short Stories by Chinua Achebe

29. Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol (African Writers) by Okot P'Bitek

30. The Famished Road by Ben Okri

31. The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of... by Amos Tutuola

32. Chaka (African Writers) by Thomas Mofolo

33. Houseboy (African Writers) by Ferdinand Oyono

34. The Concubine by Elechi Amadi

35. Yoruba Trickster Tales by Oyekan Owomoyela

36. No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

37. Death and the King's Horseman (Norton Critica... by Wole Soyinka

38. Unbowed: A Memoir (Vintage) by Wangari Maathai

39. Scarlet Song by Mariama Ba

40. Nehanda by Yvonne Vera

41. Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo

42. Oroonoko (Penguin Classics) by Aphra Behn

43. Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emecheta

44. Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf

Recommended Books on Africa, Africana and Black Studies

Delores P. Aldridge and Carlene Young. Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2003. ISBN 0-7391-0547-7.
Maulana Karenga. Introduction to Black Studies. University of Sankore Press, 2010.
Peter Gran. Beyond Eurocentrism: A new view of modern world history. Syracuse University Press, 1996.
Michael George Hanchard. Black Transnationalism, Africana Studies, and the 21st Century. Journal of Black Studies, Nov 2004; vol. 35: pp. 139 - 153.
James L. Conyers. The Evolution Of Africology: An Afrocentric Appraisal. Journal of Black Studies, May 2004; vol. 34: pp. 640 - 652.
Mark Christian. Black Studies in the 21st Century: Longevity Has Its Place. Journal of Black Studies, May 2006; vol. 36: pp. 698 - 719.
Molefi Kete Asante. A Discourse on Black Studies: Liberating the Study of African People in the Western Academy. Journal of Black Studies, May 2006; vol. 36: pp. 646 - 662.
A. Adu Boahen. African Perspectives on Colonialism. John Hopkins University Press 1989.
David Birmingham. Decolonization Of Africa. Routledge 1995.
Frederick Cooper. Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Terry Kershaw. Toward a Black Studies Paradigm: An Assessment and Some Directions. Journal of Black Studies, Jun 1992; vol. 22: pp. 477 - 493.
Mervat Hatem. Africa on My Mind. International Journal of Middle East Studies. (41) 2009.
Carolyn Somerville. The “African” in Africana/Black/African and African American Studies. International Journal of Middle East Studies. (41) 2009.
Terence Walz. The Fruit of the Africanist Contribution. International Journal of Middle East Studies. (41) 2009.
John O. Voll. Reconceptualizing of the “Regions” in “Area Studies”. International Journal of Middle East Studies. (41) 2009.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 1992. “The Invention of Africa.” Pp. 3-27. In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 2003. Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism And the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Comaroff, Jean and John. 1991. “Africa Observed: Discourses of the Imperial Imagination.” Pp. 86-125, Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. X
Grant-Thomas, Andrew and john a. Powell. 2009. “Structural Racism and Color Lines in the United States. Pp. 118-144 in Twenty-First Century Color Lines: Multiracial Change in Contemporary America. Edited by Andrew Grant-Thomas and Gary Orfield. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. X
Mazrui, Ali. 2005. The Re-invention of Africa: Edward Said, V. Y. Mudimbe, and Beyond. Research in African Literatures 36 (3): 68-82.
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1998.
Achebe, Chinua. A Man of the People. New York: Anchor, 1967, 1989.
Maier, Karl. Into the House of Ancestors: Inside the New Africa. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1998.
Peterson, Scott. Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Tugrul Keskin - Assistant Professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies

Tugrul Keskin is an Assistant Professor of International and Middle Eastern Studies and an affiliated faculty of Black Studies, Sociology and the Center For Turkish Studies at Portland State University. He is also the Middle East Studies Coordinator (INTL). His research and teaching interests include Sociology of Islam and the Middle East, Social and Political Theory, Post-Colonial Theory, Islamic Movements, Development and Urbanization in the Middle East, Sociology of Africa, and Modern Kurdish, Uyghur and Turkish Nationalism. Previously, Dr. Keskin taught as an instructor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech University and has also taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at James Madison University and Radford University. He received his PhD in Sociology from Virginia Tech, with certificate degrees in Africana Studies, Social and Political Thought, and International Research and Development. He is the founder and moderator of the Sociology of Islam mailing list, and editor of the Sociology of Islam and Muslim Societies Newsletter: http://www.pdx.edu/sociologyofislam. Dr. Keskin has recently had his edited book, The Sociology of Islam: Secularism Economy and Politics published by Garnet/Ithaca Press, 2011. Tugrul Keskin is a board member of Sociologists Without Borders and serves as a book review editor of Societies Without Borders http://societieswithoutborders.org/.