TOURO COLLEGE
New York School of Career and Applied Studies
Syllabus
Department: Sociology
Course Title: Tradition and Change in Black Africa
Course Number: GSO 255
Prerequisites: GSO 121
Credit Hours: 3
Developer: John E. Njoku/Abbott Katz
Date of Last Update: December, 2003
Course Description:
A study of Africa and contemporary challenges to indigenous lifestyles as reflected in the
writings of leading African scholars and artists.
Course/Developmental Objectives:
To deepen the learning experience with current, closely documented data of Africa, and
to rethink prevailing views about the continent.
Course/Institutional Objectives
To foster a richer understanding and appreciation of our students’ own heritages and a
respect for the heritage of others, and to work towards more harmonious relationships
between different groups, particularly in the greater New York metropolitan community;
to enhance critical thinking and foster communication skills.
Course Content:
 Reasons to study Africa – Contemporary African events resonate in AfricanAmerican and other communities, bearing with them international political
consequences.
 The Geography of Africa – The African’s relation to his/her environment, and its
recurring challenges to and opportunities for its inhabitants.
 Kinship and Social Organization
 Literature and Values – A look at African folkloric tradition, reflecting the lore,
customs, ontology, beliefs, philosophies, and histories of diverse African peoples.
 Imperialism and Colonialism – The European incursion; slavery.
 Political Integration – Various nation-building strategies deployed by charismatic
African leaders, e.g., Nrumah of Ghana, Nyerere of Tanzania, Mobutu of Zaire,
Jomo-Kenyatta of Kenya.
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Women in Africa
Strategies for Change – Change and its dynamic effects upon social institutions
and their structures and values.
Hardware/Software/Materials Requirements: No additional requirements; video
materials available upon request.
Course Requirements
 Chapters 2, 6-7, Belasco
 Chapters 1-7, World of African Women
 Pages 1-15, The Dictionary of Names and Cultures
 Class projects and discussion
 Museum visits
Grading Guidelines
 Research paper
 Midterm exam
 Final exam
Methodology
An inquiry-oriented analytic process is brought to bear upon the course, encouraging a
secure grounding in geography. The course is seen as a facilitator, directing students to
pertinent resources, and thus burnishing their investigative skills.
Course Texts
Belasco, M.J., History, Culture, People, Globe Book Company, Cambridge Division,
New York, 1981.
Njoku, J.E., The World of African Women, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., New Jersey and
London, 1980.
Njoku, J. E., A Dictionary of lgbo Names, Culture and Proverbs, University Press of
America, Washington, D.C., 1978.
Bibliography
Baker, Jonathan, and Tade Akin Aina, (eds.), The migration experience in Africa,
Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1995.
Besteman, Catherine Lowe. Unraveling Somalia : Race, Violence, and the Legacy of
Slavery, Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1999
Blakely, Thomas, D. Walter E.A. van Beek, Dennis L. Thomson, Religion in Africa :
Experience and Expression, with the assistance of Linda Hunter Adams and Merrill E.
Oates. London : J. Currey ; Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann, 1994.
Bodley. J.H. Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems, Mayfield Publishing
Company. California. 1976.
Brown. Radcliffe and Daryll Forde. African Kinship and Marriage, Oxford University
Press, 1970.
Foster, P.J.: Africa South of Sahara. The MacMillian Company. New York, 1968.
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Hartwig, Gerald W., and K. David Patterson (eds.), Disease in African History : an
Introductory Survey and Case Studies, Mario Joaquim Azevedo ..[et al.], Durham, N.C. :
Duke University Press, 1978.
Hudson, Barbara Hill, African American Female Speech Communities : Varieties of
Talk, Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 2001
Jones, Eldred Durosimi; Oral and Written Poetry in African Literature Today : a Review:
associate editor : Eustace Palmer ; editorial assistant : Marjorie Jones. 1st American ed.
Joseph, Richard A Smart Partnerships for African Development [electronic resource] : A
New Strategic Framework Washington, D.C. : U.S. Institute of Peace, [2002] Series
(Special report ; 88)
Loomis, C.P. and Beegle. J.A: Rural Sociology; The Strategy of Change, Prentice Hall.
Inc. I .Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1957.
Marcum, John A., (editor for the Study Team of the United States-South Africa Leader
Exchange Program),. Education, Race, and Social Change in South Africa Berkeley,
Calif: University of California Press, 1982.
McEvedy, Colin. Atlas of African History, New York : Facts on File, 1980.
McIntosh, Susan Keech,Beyond Chiefdoms : Pathways to Complexity in Africa,
Cambridge ; New York :Cambridge University Press, 1999
Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney, Using the Master's Tools :Resistance and the Literature
of the African and South-Asian Diasporas, 1st ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.
Njoku,.J.E.: Refund :My Bride Price, Vantage Press, New York. 1976.
Petersen, Kirsten Holst, Criticism and ideology : Second African Writers' Conference,
Stockholm, 1986, with an introductory essay by Per Wästberg. Uppsala [Sweden] :
Scandinavian Institute of African Studies ; [Stockholm, Sweden : Distributed by
Almqvist & Wiksell International], 1988.
Piot, Charles, Remotely Global : Village Modernity in West Africa, Chicago : University
of Chicago Press, 1999
Stein, H. and Murphy, J.E.: Teaching Africa Today, Citation Press, New York, 1973.,
Turnbull. C.M.: Africa and Change. Alfred A Knopf. New York, 1973.
Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1989
Uchendu, V.C.: The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
1965.
Walton, Jr., Hanes James Bernard Rosser, Sr., Robert L. Stevenson. (eds.), Liberian
Politics : The Portrait by African American Diplomat J. Milton Turner, Lanham, Md. :
Lexington Books, 2002.
Zacarias, Agostinho, Security and the state in Southern Africa.London ; New York :
Tauris Academic Studies, 1999
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