1. The origin of Africana Studies, its relationship to the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s
functions, paradigms, and subject matter, when it was established.
a. Afro-American Studies is an academic field that combines general intellectual history,
academic scholarship in the social sciences and the humanities, and a radical movement
for fundamental educational reform.
b.
c. All knowledge is defines as competing paradigms.
d. Rights, resources, recognitions, representation
e. Theory-a structure of explanations given the observations
f. Intellectual dominance
2. Shifting Western attitudes towards Africa and Africans; Basil Davidson: differences between ___
model of interaction and the Modern model of interaction between Europeans and Africans
a. Basil Davidson: was a British historian, writer and Africanist, particularly knowledgeable on the
subject of Portuguese Africa prior to the 1974 Carnation Revolution. He wrote several books on
the current plight of Africa.
i.
Basil Davidson- “Different but Equal”: “Black man’s burden” – Book. He explores
themes in the movie about paradigms. Social sciences are characterized by multiple
paradigms. Debates and dialogue continues and these ideas are constantly wrestling to be
accepted. The can be based on solid foundation.Misconceptions: Egypt was isolated from
the rest of Africa. This implies that the rest of Africa didn’t have any influence toward
the rest of Africa. There is a relationship between Egypt and inner Africa. “Aryan” –
white, European
b.
3. Eurocentrism; challenging Eurocentric thought and history; historians studying ancient Africa
____ Eurocentrism today.
a. Eurocentrism (also "Western-centrism") is a political term coined in the 1980s, referring
to the notion of European exceptionalism, a worldview centered on Western civilization,
as it had developed during the height of the European colonial empires since the early
modern period.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
b.
Colonialism, and resistance: “Nationalism must involve ‘decolonizing the mind’ as well as ____
independence.” Anti-colonial and nationalist thinkers
The “nation” as “imagined community”; Contradictions of nationalism: inclusion vs. exclusion
limitations of nationalism. South Africa’s negotiated settlement
The Middle Passage; slavery and the slave trade; the Modern African Diaspora; Brazilian slave
_____ racially stratified societies (US, South Africa, Brazil); race and class; Orlando Paterson’s
_______ slavery
Race, culture, biology; race as a “social construct”; racism; W.E.B DuBois; the African American
of “freedom”
Race, empire and globalization; migration, displacement, identity; “authenticity” and hybridity