Title of Grant: Amadou Hampaté Bâ and the French Colonial Regime in West Africa S2012‐435P‐PF Date of Funding: Summer 2012 Name: Charles Evans College: Northern Virginia Community College Email: cevans@nvcc.edu Abstract: In this project, we will develop a content‐rich website (a learning object) that focuses on the French colonies in West Africa in the late nineteenth century through the eyes of Amadou Hampaté Bâ (1901‐1991). His L'étrange destin du Wangrin (The Fortunes of Wangrin, published in 1973), was a devastating critique of the French colonial presence in that region. Our website will publish important background materials that will make Bâ’s works usable for students in mainly western and world history survey courses but also in world literature courses. Actual Outcomes: Brice Montaner and I were able to complete our project this March, and our website now resides at http://amadouba.blogspot.com/ with the title, Amadou Hampâté Bâ and the Uncertain Fortunes of French West Africa. Since it is on the web, it is now accessible to anyone (students, faculty, scholars and persons both in the VCCS and literally anywhere in the world) interested in Amadou Hampâté Bâ and his work critical of the French colonial presence in West Africa. The Bâ book, The Fortunes of Wangrin, supplemented by this website will become part of our HIS 102 and HIS 112 courses (both on campus and online) starting with the summer semester 2012. This will give students a different perspective on the age of European imperialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a result of our work, one of my colleagues who teaches world literature at the college will also be adding this book, accompanied by our website, to her syllabus. This was a great experience‐‐the collaboration with an adjunct history instructor on a grant project‐‐and I hope that this becomes a model for encouraging more of our adjunct faculty to pursue content‐rich, VCCS grant projects. I will certainly pursure more opportunities to engage them. Instructors of both history and world literature will benefit from this project as they will have access to material that they can use in their courses. Students in our history courses will benefit from this historical material that will help them with their study of the colonial/decolonization eras. This will give them another option for the specific paper on that topic that they are required to write. World literature students will also be able to use the materials that we develop. Since this material will be published on the web, it will be available to all instructors and students throughout the VCCS. I have repeatedly tried to interest adjunct faculty to apply for VCCS professional development funds in the past few years, and I think that this project will be a good model for my efforts to try and entice other adjunct instructors to be more involved in seeking funds for professional development activities. Other Colleges: Discussion and Critique: I would not change anything about either our project or the process in developing our project. What the project has done is allow us to consider pursuing other opportunities to do similar projects with history adjuncts, focusing on their specific areas of expertise, to bring further resources and study options to our students. Evaluation: (1) site has been set up. (2) site will be used in our history survey courses, and we will be able to survey both students and faculty at the end of the semester. (3) we have received phrase from both history and literature instructors about the quality of our website and the materials there. (4) we will be able to track stats and see usage of our website. Dissemination: We have shared the Bâ website with all faculty teaching western and world civilization (approximately twenty instructors) and literature courses at the campus. We have also shared with the instructors of world literature who teach online at our college. My collaborator, Brice Montaner, will write up some remarks to that we can publish information about our project. We will discuss our model at fall convocations.