African Studies

This is an internship through a CIEE course. Students intern at a pre-screened internship opportunity with a community based organization or a local business in a field of their choosing. Students record their experiences in a journal, which is evaluated weekly during the internship, and complete a final assignment and oral presentation. Students have the guidance of a mentor and the Academic Advisor/internship coordinator. Students learn to work successfully in a new environment, meaningfully contribute to the organization and the community it serves, gain valuable work experience, and have the opportunity to reflect and learn throughout the internship.

This course provides an overview of the voluntary and involuntary journeys, life experiences, as well as the general culture of Africans in the Diaspora. It discusses some of the surviving African cultural elements in the Americas, and analyzes certain cultural and political coping/resistance strategies. The course demonstrates the resilience of African culture as expressed in music, literature, language, religious beliefs, festivals, and art. It critiques some of the ideological bases for the various slave-trading epochs, and suggest ways of enhancing the African image within the global community. The course discusses notable contributions of the African Diaspora to the body of world civilization.

This seminar is an introduction to African writing. The course focuses on writing from Africa but includes reference to some texts written about Africa by non-Africans to demonstrate the contrast in style, context, and representation. The main texts are from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. Students examine postcoloniality, language, the oral tradition, and access to publishing, as well as the clash of tradition and modernity, gender, landscape, childhood, and politics.

This is a specialist seminar focusing on some of the African continent's major thinkers. The aim is not only to study the seminal thoughts forming the wider context of the business of making literature in Africa but also to discuss the intellectual and cultural agenda posed by such thought.

This course looks at the transnational players and globalization practices in Africa. Topics covered in the course include: how do we measure globalization; the macroeconomic fictions in Africa; political commerce in Africa; triptology of State, financial institutions, and the private sector; cultural globalization; a dynamic of flows and closures; ports of transport and international ports; African villages; African/Chinese relations in commerce and politics; tourism and disenchantments.

This course analyzes the intersection of politics and economics in relation to diverse developments in Africa. These dynamics are explored from both the perspectives of African countries and those of external actors. Specifically, the focus is on both intra African relationships and the engagement of African countries/Africa with the rest of the world. The course explores, among other things, the dynamics that have influenced the economic and political development of natural-resource-dependent countries like Nigeria, Botswana, and Angola. It also explores the impact of natural resources on conflict in countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo DRC, and South Sudan. Furthermore, the course critiques the relationship between political stability and economic growth across the continent. At another level, the course also explains why, perhaps with the exception of Mauritius, manufacturing has rarely driven economic growth in Africa and the implications of this for the future economic advancement of the continent. The course also examines the impact of foreign direct investments and foreign aid on the political and economic development of Africa. Greater emphasis is placed on aid-dependent countries like Rwanda, South Sudan, and Liberia. Finally, the course looks at the relationship between states and businesses across the continent and the potential role of indigenous entrepreneurship and the African diaspora in African development. In summary, this course explores the diverse debates on the political economy of Africa. Key topics include: the relationship between African states and businesses; regional and monetary integration both at the continental and sub continental levels; Africa and the global financial system; intra African trade and African trade with the rest of the world; natural resources and conflict in Africa; foreign aid and foreign direct investments in Africa; China in Africa; the future of Africa; and the role and dynamics of the African diaspora among others. Prerequisites for this course are an introdutctory policy course and an introductory economics course.

This course focuses on how Africans experienced the Atlantic trade and how they challenged the oppressive systems under which they were forced to labor. It provides a broadly chronological introduction to the ways in which Africans became slaves, the Middle Passage, and the establishment of plantations in the New World. It makes use of slave narratives, photographs, and abolitionist tracts to examine the origins, form, and structure of the Atlantic trade from a global perspective.