History 49B: Survey of African History since 1800
Winter 2010, T/Th: 3:30-4:45, Bld. 387, Rm 101
Prof. Stephan Miescher
Office: HSSB 4241
Office hrs: W: 2:00-4:00, or by appt.
E-mail: miescher@history.ucsb.edu
TA Sarah Watkins
Office: HSSB 3210
Office hrs: Thurs: 1-3
sarahwatkins@umail.ucsb.edu
The course provides an introduction to African history since the early nineteenth century.
Instead of presenting a comprehensive survey, covering every region of this vast
continent, this course takes a topical approach by focusing on a selection of themes and
issues that are crucial to develop an understanding of modern African history. Themes
include: sources of African history; power and identities in pre-colonial states and
societies; organization of production; Africa’s connections to the world economy; slavery
and slave trade; explorers, missionaries, settlers, and other cross-cultural encounters;
European conquest and resistance; gendered colonialism; Pan-Africanism, nationalism,
and struggles for independence; development and the contradictions of post-colonial
Africa; recent crises. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to the importance of
culture in African history--including religion, music, and art--as well as the role of
women in African societies. Select case studies will allow us to gain an understanding of
the historical experiences of African men and women. Readings include the textbook
Africa since 1800, one historical monograph, and excerpts from other scholarly works.
We will also read a selection of primary sources such as travelogues, (auto)biographical
accounts, missionary and colonial reports, statements by anti-colonial leaders and
organizations, as well as newspapers articles. PowerPoint slides, video clips, and
recordings will provide historical and contemporary images and sounds of Africa’s
environments, peoples, and cultures. This course is designed for all students wishing to
learn about Africa’s fascinating history.
Requirements
The course is organized around lectures with weekly discussion sections (see the separate
section syllabus). You are expected to have read the materials before lecture, take notes
of the readings, and be prepared to discuss them in your section. You are required to
attend all lectures, participate in section, and complete section assignments in a timely
fashion. Frequent absences will lower your grade. There will be a map quiz, a midterm
(ID and multiple-choice questions in class), and a final examination. Each student will
write one paper of approximately 1800 words about Caroline Elkins’s monograph,
Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya (paper assignment
will be discussed in class). There will be no extension of due dates.
On Tuesday of week seven and on Thursday of week nine, there will be a film screening
in the evening. You are expected to view the films, Lumumba and Hotel Rwanda, which
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are part of the class material and subject to exam questions (VHS or DVD copies will be
on reserve for one week after the screening).
Your grade will be assessed on your performance in the following ways:
Class participation, 20%
Map quiz, 5%, Tuesday, January 19
Midterm, 25%, Tuesday, February 9 (ID and multiple choice questions in class)
Paper, 20%, due in class, Tuesday, February 23
Final exam, 30%, Friday, March 19, 4-7 pm
Readings
-- History 49B Reader
-- Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya
(First Owl Books, 2006 [2005])
-- Thomas Mofolo, Chaka, translated by Daniel P. Kunene (Heinemann, 1981 [1931])
-- Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore, Africa Since 1800, 5th Edition (Cambridge UP,
2005)
History 49B Reader is available at Associate Students, Notetaking and Publications
Service, U-Cen, phone: x4471, the other texts at the UCSB Bookstore. Copies of books
are also available on two-hour reserve at the Davidson Library.
* * * * *
Week 1: Sources and Atlantic Trade
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Lecture 1: Categories and Sources of Modern African History
-- Reader, 1-38
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Lecture 2: From Slave Trade to Legitimate Trade, c. 1790-1850
-- Reader, 39-67
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 1, 2 (recommended)
Week 2: Nineteenth-Century States and Societies
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Lecture 3: State and Society in West Africa: Asante and Sokoto, c. 1800-1850
-- Reader, 71-88
-- Oliver & Atmore, ch. 5 (pp. 63-77)
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Lecture 4: State and Society in Southern Africa: Zulu and European Settlers, c. 18001850
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-- Reader, 89-92
-- T. Mofolo, Chaka
-- Oliver & Atmore, ch. 8 (pp. 103-116)
Week 3: African Settlers, Slaves, and Missionaries
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
* MAP Quiz
Lecture 5: Liberia & Sierra Leone, c. 1787-1896
-- Reader, 95-121
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Lecture 6: Mapping a Continent: Missionaries and Slaves, c. 1850-1900
-- Reader, 123-73
-- Oliver & Atmore chs. 6 (esp. 81-86), 7 (esp. 90-96), ch. 8 (esp. 116-17)
Week 4: European Conquest
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Lecture 7: The Scramble for Africa: Case Studies of Egypt and Congo, c. 1870-1908
-- Reader, 177-97
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 3 (esp. 43-47), 9 (esp. 120-23)
Thursday, February 28, 2010
Lecture 8: Reactions to Conquest, c. 1870-1900
-- Reader, 199-208
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 3 (47-51), 10 (esp. 138, 140-5)
Week 5: Political Economy of Colonialism
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Lecture 9: Organization of Colonial Rule and Peasant Production, c. 1890-1939
-- Reader, 211-29
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 11 (146-59), 12 (esp. 160-64), 13 (esp. 170-79)
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Lecture 10: Industrialization and Rural Displacement in South Africa, 1869-1939
-- Reader, 231-262
-- Oliver & Atmore, ch. 15 (200-10)
Week 6: Gendered Colonialism and Nationalism
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
**MIDTERM EXAM
Lecture 11: Gendered Colonialism, c. 1875-1960
-- Reader, 265-306
-- Oliver & Atmore, ch. 12 (164-69)
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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Lecture 12: World War II and Nationalism: Gold Coast/Ghana, 1939-1957
-- Reader, 307-19
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 13, (179-82), 16 (211-25), 18 (esp. 244-50)
Week 7: Armed Resistance and Independence Struggles
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Lecture 13: Anti-Colonial Resistance and Decolonization: Kenya and Congo, 1945-1963
-- Reader, 323-26
-- Elkins, Imperial Reckoning
-- Oliver & Atmore, ch. 18 (254-65)
6-8 pm: Film, Lumumba (dir. Raoul Peck, 2000, 115')
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Lecture 14: Non-Classroom Instruction
Work on paper
Week 8: Challenges of Post-Colonial Africa and Apartheid South Africa
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
*** PAPER DUE
Lecture 15: Contradictions of Post-Colonial Africa, 1960-1980
-- Reader, 329-53
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 21 (303-20), 22 (323-29)
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Lecture 16: The South-African Anti-Apartheid Struggle, 1948-1964
-- Reader, 355-71
-- Oliver & Atmore, ch. 20 (283-90)
Week 9: Liberation in Southern Africa
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Lecture 17: The End of Apartheid in South Africa, 1964-2000
-- Reader, 375-89
--Oliver & Atmore, chs. 19 (279-82), 20 (291-302), 21 (esp. 320-22)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Lecture 18: The Rwanda Genocide of 1994 (Guest lecture by Sarah Watkins)
-- Reader, 391-429
-- Oliver & Atmore, chs. 22 (329-38), 23 (esp. 343-49)
6-8 pm: Film, Hotel Rwanda (dir. Terrie George, 2004, 122')
Week 10: Africa in Crisis
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Lecture 19: AIDS Crisis, c. 1990-2009
-- Reader, 433-48
-- Oliver & Atmore, epilogue (esp. 369-373)
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Thursday, March 11, 2010
Lecture 20: Review
5:00 - 6:15 pm: Guest lecture by Prof. Laura Edmondson, Dartmouth College,
“Transnational Narratives of Violence in Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC”
**** FINAL EXAM: Friday, March 19, 2010, 4-7 pm