African Studies

This course covers the main issues at the root of most of the conflicts in Africa. It examines the conflicts and geopolitical dynamics that affect the Horn of Africa and identifies the historical, political, and military regional dynamics of these conflicts, as well as their broader international dimension. The course provides a critical analysis of Horn Africa's relations with the world as the new battle held between emerging powers such as the Gulf, BRICS, and traditional superpowers. It also provides a general overview of violent extremist groups and regional and international responses to the Global War on Terror. Finally, it discusses current wars as well as their strategic implications and connections to the most prominent global security challenges of the post-Cold War and post 9/11 world.

This course reads and analyzes Francophone literature written by those of Black descent in order to understand terms like Afrofuturism and Afroprophetism to connect history with the present. The course examines the literary and narrative histories and structure of African and African-related works and considers how the narratives renew the view of Africa in a philosophical sense through literary works. Works studied include Leonara Miano's ROUGE IMPERATRICE, Abdourrahman Waberi's AUX ETATS UNIS D'AFRIQUE, and an anthology collected through a collective project.

In the context of the current level of globalization, this course explores Africa’s position in and relations with other parts of the globalizing world. The course highlights Africa’s experience of globalization, focusing on the challenges and opportunities that globalization presents, particularly on cultures and identities in the continent.

This course focuses on the relationship between violent conflict and economic development. The first half of the course examines the concepts of conflict and development, as well as some associated theories. The second part focuses on the nexus between conflict and development, the cultural dimensions of conflict and development, and concludes with some policy interventions that could be applied to reduce the risk of conflict and accelerate development. Reference is made to some case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This course takes students with zero knowledge of Xhosa to a good, basic competency in the language. The course actively engages students in acquiring the language through a series of well-developed modules with an integrated approach to acquiring speaking, writing, and comprehension skills in Xhosa. Grammar is taught in context and students are expected to apply their grammatical knowledge in task-based communication situations. Students are taught about different varieties of Xhosa and how to use these appropriately in social contexts. Tests, assignments, and portfolio activities counts 35%; orals count 15%; one two-hour examination counts 50% of the final mark.

What kind of anthropology is it that we, as scholars and students of the discipline, should or need to be advocating – also and especially with a view to current timely demands for conceptual and structural decolonization? How has anthropological critique questioned the fundamentals of the discipline (of anthropology) itself? Which programmatic pathways have been sketched out to indicate constructive ways forward? What do we think of them; which others would we like to raise; why? Does the inclusion of, and focus on theory from the South already constitute a fundamental change? How might anthropology engage constructively with thinkers and theoretical contributions from the global South? In which ways, finally, does it matter that we as researchers and social agents are inevitably positioned in certain ways, often belonging clearly to regions of the Global North or South? This seminar course will pursue these and related questions with a view to some classic and some recent readings, both from within and outside anthropology, and engaging with theorizing from the South, especially from Africa.

The course is conceived against the background of important debates on the conceptualization of development in global academic and policy contexts from the post-independence period (1960s) to date. This course is concerned with the notions of "emergence" and "transition" and pays special attention to African economies that are increasingly cited as having "achieved" some level of prominence in this regard. Students are encouraged to engage critically with mainstream thought on African experiences as they examine the interaction between theoretical frameworks/debates and empirical realities.

This course introduces African oral and written literature in the indigenous languages. Students discuss literary aspects of both oral and written literature and the various functions and purposes they serve in society. The course includes a description and analysis of various genres of African oral and written literature.

This course introduces Bachelor students to the evolution of African literary canons from the late 19th to the 21st centuries. Emphasis is laid on acquainting students to central debates that have preoccupied African writers and how these debates have unmasked the complexities of African societies before and at the dawn of colonialization. In exploring the texts, developing basic skills such as reading, interpreting, analyzing, and critiquing novels, short stories, drama, and poetry is a major objective of the seminar. Further, debates regarding the historical and cultural contexts of the literary productions shall be engaged in the course of the seminar. To have a better appreciation of African literatures, texts, and critical discourse from the African Diaspora shall be part of the literary corpus. The course also discusses major theoretical approaches to literature such as, structuralism, narratology, new historicism, and African feminist critical perspectives. The postcolonial theory is, however, a major critical discourse in the seminar.