The University of Texas at Arlington
Department of History
Fall 2011
African Diaspora I (4376 -001)
Instructor: Dr. Alusine Jalloh
Class Hours: TTH, 8:00 – 9:20 a.m.
Office Hours: TTH, 9:30 a.m. –12:30 p.m. or by appointment (817) 272-2861/5302, Room 312,
University Hall. E-mail: Jalloh@uta.edu.
Student Disability: The University of Texas at Arlington is on record as being committed to both the spirit and letter of federal equal opportunity legislation; reference Public Law 92-112.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. With the passage of federal legislation entitled Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), pursuant to section 504 of the rehabilitation Act, there is renewed focus on providing this population with the same opportunities enjoyed by all citizens.
As a faculty member, I am required by law to provide “reasonable accommodations” to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability.
Student responsibility primarily rests with informing faculty of their need for accommodation and in providing authorized documentation through designated administrative channels. Information regarding specific diagnostic criteria and policies for obtaining academic accommodations can be found at www.uta.edu/disability . Also, you may visit the Office for Students with Disabilities in Room 102 of University Hall or call them at (817) 272-3364.
Drops: The instructor will not drop students for excessive absences. Students are responsible for dropping a course before the cut-off date for drops. Not dropping the course results in an “F.”
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Dishonest Policy: Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student, or the attempt to commit such acts. Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and dismissal from the University. Since dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced.
Course Description
This course examines the major developments that have shaped the history of Africans and their descendants in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Indian Ocean areas from earliest times to 1900. In addition to lectures, the instructor will show documentary films to illuminate the lecture themes. Furthermore, the instructor will discuss the main elements of the themes and the historiographical trends in class. Students are expected to demonstrate in class discussions, examinations, and research papers an ability to analyze and synthesize historical information on Africa. In addition, students are expected to participate actively in class discussions.
Course Requirements
Class participation
Final Essay Examination
10 points
50 points
10-15 page type-written research paper on a topic of the student’s selection with the approval of the instructor. The research paper is due on the last day of class, December 8 , 2011
40 points
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A.
B.
Required Textbooks
A.
Alusine Jalloh and Stephen E. Maizlish, eds. The African Diaspora (College Station:
Texas A & M University Press, 1996).
B.
David Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade, ed. Third Edition (Boston: Wadsworth,
2011)
C.
Michael Conniff and Thomas J. Davis, eds. Africans in the Americas: A History of the
Black Diaspora (New Jersey: Blackburn Press, 1994)
D.
John Hunwick and Eve T. Powell, The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam (New Jersey: Markus Wiener, 2002).
Course Outline
C.
Definition and Concept of the African (Black) Diaspora
Readings
Jalloh and Maizlish, The African Diaspora, pp. 3-21.
Emmanuel Akyeampong, “Africans in the Diaspora: the Diaspora and Africa” in African Affairs,
Vol. 99 (2000): 183-215
Alusine Jalloh, “In Search of America: The New West African Diaspora,” in Transatlantic History, eds. Steven G. Reinhardt and Dennis Reinhartz (College Station: Texas A & M University Press,
2006), pp. 195-216.
Documentary Films: “Family Across the Sea” and “The Neo-African-Americans”
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The Black Diaspora in the Muslim World
Readings
A.
John O. Hunwick, “African Slaves in the Mediterranean World: A Neglected Aspect of the
African Diaspora,” in J.E. Harris, ed. Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, pp. 289-323.
B.
Hunwick and Powell, The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam.
Documentary Film: “Story of Islam”
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Africa Diaspora in the Atlantic World
Readings
A.
Jalloh and Maizlish, The African Diaspora, pp. 39-125.
B.
Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade, pp. 1-180
C.
Conniff and Davis, Africans in the Americas, pp. 1-174
Documentary Films: “Ship of Slaves: The Middle Passage,” “Faces of Slavery,” and “Fight
Against Slavery” and ‘African American Lives”
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Additional Reading
Joseph E. Harris, ed. Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora. Second edition.
Michael Gomez, Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora
Isidore Okpewho, Caole B.Davis, and Ali A. Mazrui, eds. The African Diaspora: African Origins and New
World Identities
Vincent B. Thompson, The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas, 1441-1900
Ronald Segal, The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside of Africa
John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800. Second Edition.
Ronald Segal, Islam’s Black Slaves: the other Black Diaspora
Boubacar Barry, Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade
J. Lorand Matory, Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism, and Matriarachy in the Afro-
Brazilian Candomble
Timothy E. Fulop and Albert J. Raboteau, ed. African American Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Culture
Rosalind Shaw, Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone
Anne C. Bailey, African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and Shame
Joseph E. Inikori and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies,
Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe
Toyin Falola and Matt D. Childs, eds. The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World
Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution
Mary Lousie, From Slavery to Freetown: Black Loyalists after the American Revolution
John W. Pulis, ed. Black Loyalists in the Afro-Atlantic World
James W. St. G. Walker, The Black Loyalists: the Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra
Leone
Lamin Sanneh, Abolitionists Abroad: American Blacks and the Making of Modern West Africa
Alusine Jalloh and Toyin Falola, eds. The United States and West Africa (Rochester: University of
Rochester Press, 2008).
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Proposed Topics for Research Paper
1.
Slavery in Africa.
2.
The Trans-Saharan Trade.
3.
The role of Africans in the Trans-Saharan Trade.
4.
The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade and the Origins of the Africa Diaspora in the Islamic World.
5.
Black Slaves in the Islamic World.
6.
Female slaves in the Islamic diaspora.
7.
Male slaves in the Muslim World.
8.
The contributions of African slaves in the Islamic diaspora.
9.
Arab racism and the black diaspora in the Muslim World.
10.
The relationship between Arabs and black Africans in the Islamic diaspora.
11.
West Africa on the eve of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
12.
West-Central Africa on the eve of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
13.
The reasons for the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade.
14.
The effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade on Africa.
15.
The effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade on the Atlantic World.
16.
African Americans and West Africa.
17.
Afro-Caribbeans and West Africa.
18.
Afro-Latinos and West Africa
19.
Afro-Mexicans
20.
Diaspora blacks and the founding of Sierra Leone.
21.
Diaspora blacks and the founding of Liberia.
22.
The relationship between diaspora blacks and the indigenous populations of West Africa.
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Journals
African Studies Review
American Historical Review
Canadian Journal of African Studies
Journal of African History
Journal of Modern African Studies
Journal of African American History
The International Journal of African Historical Studies
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