Image courtesy of Bodys Isek Kingelez, AFRICA REMIX

Anthropology of Modern Africa

ANT 4354 sec. 9531

T per. 5-6 (11:45a-1:30p), R per 6 (12:50p-1:40p)

Little Hall rm. 0121

Spring 2008

 

Dr. Brenda Chalfin

bchalfin@anthro.ufl.edu

441 grinter, 392-2427

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/bchalfin/

office hours: W 11a-noon, R 3-4p & by appt.

 

Class Website: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mmlkiel/ModernAfrica.html

Teaching Assistant: Michelle Kiel mlkiel@ufl.edu

 

 

Course Description

Is it possible to speak of Africa as a whole or does the continent’s diversity defy generalization?  Is there a set of core dynamics that cut across the continent, tying together multiple locations and adaptations?

 

Providing an overview of Africa’s history, societies and cultures, this course examines large scale vectors of change sweeping across the African continent from the pre-colonial era to the present. A central concern of the course is to convey the dynamism and adaptability of African societies and the long history of interaction and exchange across the continent as well as between Africa and other areas of the world. African cultures, seen from this point of view, are neither static nor isolated, but continually being re-shaped from within and without and producing diverse solutions to common problems.

 

These claims are developed through the exploration of a wide range of topics and themes relevant to the continent as a whole. They include

 

  • The states and empires of pre-colonial Africa
  • Africa’s involvement in the European-American Slave trade
  • Colonial Rule and Resistance in Africa
  • African Independence Movements
  • Rural Lifeways and International Development Initiatives
  • Africa’s mega-cities and popular cultural production
  • Youth and HIV/AIDS in post-Apartheid South Africa
  • Civil War, Child Soldiers and post-conflict restitution

 

In addition to identifying the shared conditions and determinations of modern African experience, throughout the course we will pay close attention to issues of culture: the world views and systems of meaning shaping actions and attitudes, whether of Africans or those seeking to influence African society. Whenever possible, we will equally train our anthropological eye on the practices of daily life: the material conditions and day-to-day routines of living. Finally, we will attend to the problem of agency: the possibility and limits of self-determination in contexts of structural constraint, whether imposed by culture, kin and community, the wider political and economic setting, or the deep-seated inequalities of the global system.

 

Required Reading Material:

Books to purchase:

Available from OBT (309 NW 13th St). You may also purchase books on-line. Used copies are acceptable.

Beah, Ishmeal, 2007, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Farrar

Richards, Paul, 1996, Fighting for the Rain Forest, James Currey

Trefon, Theodore ed., 2004, Reinventing Order in the Congo, Zed

Optional: Martin and O’Meara, 1995, Africa, 3rd edition (used copies available at OBT or Amazon)

 

Course Pack: A photocopied Course Pack is required and available for purchase at OBT (309 NW 13th St)

Electronic Reserve Reading:

All other course material is available from on the UF Library Home page through Electronic Course Reserve (ERES). The material is listed under the Course number. You may access this from any UF library and other on-campus locations or from home through the VPN/Remote Access Log-in. You will need to enter a UF ID # and a library ID #, which can be activated at any UF library. Please print the reading material and bring to class for discussion. A few readings will also be posted on the course web-site.

 

All reading assignments are required. Students are expected to read the assigned material prior to the class designated on the syllabus and to bring the reading material to class with them.

 

The Instructor reserves the right to make minor modifications to the course schedule and reading assignments during the semester.

 

Key:

B=book

P=OBT Course Pack

E= UFLIB ERES or pdf on course website

 

Course Requirements:

2 Exams (20% ea.): 2/7, 3/6

1 Analytic Essay (20%):  4/21

3 Research Projects and Presentations (Gordon Rule) (10% ea.): 2/5, 2/26, 4/15

Participation and Attendance (10%)

Optional Extra Credit (5% max): News Bulletins (½% ea.) or Write-up of Center for African Studies Events (1% ea.) see http://web.africa.ufl.edu for CAS Events Schedule

 

The Exams and Analytic Essay are not cumulative and will derive from each of the 3 course Units.  Review sheets and practice questions will be provided for each exam. Students are encouraged to meet out of class and study as a group. Library West group study rooms may be reserved for study sessions

 

The Projects will require 3 short writing assignments and contributions to class presentations and discussions. For papers, the APA citation format is preferred.

 

Paper Topics:

Paper #1: Imaging Independence due 2/5

Paper #2: Cultural Dimensions of Rural Development due 2/26

Paper #3: Youth, Culture and Conflict in Africa due 4/15

 

Active participation in the class is expected. Students are encouraged to share their ideas, questions and comments in class throughout the semester.

 

Course attendance is required. Excused absence will require documentation from the student’s advisor or physician. Unexcused absence may result in failure as stated in the Undergraduate Catalog. Late papers will not be accepted. No make-up or early exams will be administered. During class meetings, it is forbidden to use cell phones, use computers for anything but taking notes, or read material unrelated to the class.

Students with disability requesting accommodation must provide documentation from the Dean of Students Office.

Academic Honesty:

All students are required to abide by the Academic Honesty Guidelines and Honor Code, which have been accepted by the University. Violations of the Honor Code will be handled according to the guidelines set by Student Judicial Affairs.

Academic Honesty Guidelines

The Academic Honesty Guidelines at the University of Florida are designed to develop and engender a community of honor, trust and respect. The academic community of students and faculty at the University of Florida strives to develop, sustain and protect an environment of honesty, trust and respect. Students within the system receive the benefits of the academic pursuit of knowledge, free from the obstacles of lying, cheating and stealing. In return, the Academic Honesty Guidelines demand that students act with integrity in all of their endeavors. Exhibiting honesty in academic pursuits and reporting violations of the Academic Honesty Guidelines will encourage others to also act with integrity. Every student who approaches their studies with honesty and forthrightness suffers when another student attains an unfair advantage by cheating. An academic honesty offense is defined as the act of lying, cheating, or stealing academic information so that one gains academic advantage. As a University of Florida student, one is expected to neither commit nor assist another in committing an academic honesty violation. Additionally, it is the student's duty to report observed academic honesty violations.

On all work submitted for credit the following pledge is either required or implied: "On my honor I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment."

Violations of this policy will result in disciplinary action according to the judicial process. A student adjudicated responsible for violations of the Code of Student Conduct or the Academic Honesty Guidelines shall be subject to sanctions commensurate with the offense and any aggravating and mitigating circumstances, which may include reduced or failing grade, educational sanction, suspension or expulsion. (For more details go to: http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/academic.htm)

The following actions are examples of violations of the Academic Honesty Guidelines:

Cheating. The improper taking or tendering of any information or material which shall be used to determine academic credit. Taking of information includes, but is not limited to, copying graded homework assignments from another student; working together with another individual(s) on a take-home test or homework when not specifically permitted by the teacher; looking or attempting to look at another student's paper during an examination; looking or attempting to look at text or notes during an examination when not permitted. Tendering of information includes, but is not limited to, giving your work to another student to be used or copied; giving someone answers to exam questions either when the exam is being given or after taking an exam; giving or selling a term paper or other written materials to another student; sharing information on a graded assignment.

Plagiarism. The attempt to represent the work of another as the product of one's own thought, whether the other's work is published or unpublished, or simply the work of a fellow student. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, quoting oral or written materials without citation on an exam, term paper, homework, or other written materials or oral presentations for an academic requirement; submitting a paper which was purchased from a term paper service as your own work; submitting anyone else's paper as your own work.

Misrepresentation. Any act or omission with intent to deceive a teacher for academic advantage. Misrepresentation includes using computer programs generated by another and handing it in as your own work unless expressly allowed by the teacher; lying to a teacher to increase your grade; lying or misrepresenting facts when confronted with an allegation of academic honesty.

Fabrication. The use of invented or fabricated information, or the falsification of research or other findings with the intent to deceive for academic or professional advantage.

Course Schedule

 

T Jan 8 Introduction

 

Unit 1: HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS: CROSS-CONTINENTAL CONNECTIONS

 

R Jan 10 The Diversity and Dynamism of African Culture and Society

John Lamphear and Toyin Falola, “Aspects of Early African History,” in Africa , P. Martin and P. O’Meara, eds., 1995, pp. 73-96. E

 

T Jan 15 Africa and the World-System

Curtis Keim, “Africa and Europe before 1900,” in Africa , P. Martin and P. O’Meara, eds., 1995, pp. 115-134. E

 

M. Klien, Slavery among the Wolof, in S. Miers and I. Kopytoff,  Slavery in Africa, Wisconsin, 1977, pp. 335-363. E

 

Film: Living Memory

 

R Jan 17 Colonial Interventions

Sheldon Gellar, “The Colonial Era,” in Africa , P. Martin and P. O’Meara, eds., 1995,

pp. 135-154. E

 

T Jan 22 African Contestations of Colonial Rule

Judith Van Allen, Aba Riots or Ibo Womens war. Women in Africa. Stanford. 1976. pp. 59-85. P

 

Kamene Okonjo, “Igbo Women and Community Politics,” Women in Africa. Stanford. 1976. pp. 45-58 P

 

Film: Mister Johnson

 

R Jan 24 Colonialism and Culture

Terence Ranger, “The Invention of tradition in colonial Africa” in The Invention of Tradition, E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger eds. 1983. pp. 211-263. P

 

Karin Barber, “View of the field.” Readings in African Popular Culture. Indiana. 1997. pp. 1-12. P

 

Optional:

Leroy Vail and Landeg White, “Plantation protest,” in Readings in African Popular Culture. Indiana, 1997, K. Barber ed., pp. 54-63. P

 

T Jan 29 Decolonization and Independence

B. Davidson, 1978, Let Freedom Come, Little Brown, pp. 199-204, 231-270 (read selectively) E

 

Hess, Janet, Imagining Architecture: The Structure of Nationalism in Accra, Ghana, Africa Today, 2000, 47/2, pp. 35-58 skim. E

 

Mini-Film Festival: Camp Thiaroye, Mortu Nega, Allah Tontou, Wind of Change

 

Hand out Paper #1: Imaging Independence

Hand out Exam #1 Review Sheet

 

R Jan 31

LIBRARY SESSION-Meet at Library West

Research for Paper #1: Imaging Independence

 

T Feb 5

Paper #1: Imaging Independence

Paper Due and In-class discussion/presentations

 

R Feb 7 EXAM #1

 

Unit 2: LIVELIHOODS: RURAL AND URBAN PERSPECTIVES

 

T Feb 12 The Cultural Dimensions of Rural Development and Underdevelopment

J. Ferguson, “The decentralization debacle,” The Anti-politics Machine, 1994, Minnesota, pp. 194-227. E

 

J. Ferguson, “The Anti-politics Machine,” in The Anthropology of Politics, J. Vincent ed., Blackwell, 2002, pp. 399-408. E

 

J. Fairhead and M. Leach, “False Forest History: Rethinking some West African Environmental Narratives,” World Development, 1995, 23/6, pp. 1023-1035. E

 

optional

Fred Cooper and Randall Packard, 2005, “The History and Politics of Development Knowledge,” in The Anthropology of Development and Globalization, M. Edelman and A. Haugerud eds., Blackwell, pp. 127-139. P

 

R Feb 14 Rural Development and Popular Dissent

L.A. Jarosz, “Taboo and time-work experience in Madagascar,” Geographical Review, 1994, 84/4, 438-450. E

 

Judith Carney and Michael Watts, “Manufacturing Dissent: Work, Gender and the Politics of Meaning in a Peasant Society.” Africa, 1990, Vol. 60 Issue 2, p207-241. P

 

Optional:

Sylvia Chant and Matthew Guttamn, 2005, “Men-streaming” gender? in The Anthropology of Development and Globalization, M. Edelman and A. Haugerud eds., Blackwell, pp. 240-249. P

 

***Special Event*** 15-16 February, 2008

UF Center For African Studies Carter Conference: Migration In and Out of Africa

See http://web.africa.ufl.edu/ for program

 

T Feb 19 Rural Commodities and Global Markets

Brenda Chalfin, 2003, “The North Goes Global: Export Markets and Indigenous Commodities,” in Ghana’s North, F. Kroger ed., Peter Lang, pp. 21-43. P

 

Brenda Chalfin, 2004, “West African Shea,” in Shea Butter Republic, pp. 1-29. P

 

Home Video: Shea Butter Republic

 

optional

Peter Little and Catherine Dolan, “Nontraditional Commodities and Structural Adjustment in Africa,” in The Anthropology of Development and Globalization, M. Edelman and A. Haugerud eds., Blackwell, pp. 206-215.P

 

Hand out Paper #2 Assignment: Cultural Dimensions of Rural Development

 

R Feb 21 Research Day

Research Paper #2: Cultural Dimensions of Rural Development

Library Session may be arranged upon request

 

T Feb 26 Presentations

Paper #2 Cultural Dimensions of Rural Development

Paper Due and In-class discussion/presentations

 

R Feb 28 Africa’s Mega-cities: The Case of Kinshasa

T.Trefon, ed. Reinventing Order in the Congo, 2004, Zed. Selections. B

 

T Mar 4 Urban Order and Disorder in Kinshasa

T.Trefon, ed. Reinventing Order in the Congo, 2004, Zed. Selections. B

 

Kinshasa Slide-Show

 

R Mar 6 Exam #2

 

***SPECIAL EVENT*** Conflict, Conflict Resolution and Post-Conflict Recovery in Africa

Center for African Studies, 3-5pm, Friday, Mar. 7, 2008

 

Mar 8-16 SPRING BREAK

 

Unit 3: YOUTH, CONFLICT AND CRISIS

 

T Mar 18  South African Perspectives on HIV/AIDS: Post-Apartheid Youth

S. Leclerc-Madlala, Popular Responses to Hiv/Aids Policy, Journal of Southern African Studies, 2005, 31/4, pp. 845-856. E

 

S. Leclerc-Madlala, Infect One, Infect All, Medical Anthropology, 1997. E

 

R Mar 20 South African Perspectives on HIV/AIDS: Youth and Globalization

S. Leclerc-Madlala, Transactional sex and the pursuit of modernity, Social Dynamics, 2003, 29/2, pp. 213–233. E

 

S. Leclerc-Madlala, Youth, HIV/AIDS and the Importance of Sexual Culture and Context. Social Dynamics, 2002, 28/1, 20-41. E

 

T Mar 25 Civil Conflict: The case of Sierra Leone

P. Richards, 1996, Fighting for the Rain Forest, James Currey. selections. B

 

R Mar 27 Child Soldiers and Civil Conflict in Sierra Leone

I. Beah, Ishmeal, 2007, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Farrar. Selections. B

 

T April 1 Youth Culture and Conflict

P. Richards, 1996, Fighting for the Rain Forest, James Currey. selections. B

 

R April 3 Civil War and Post-Conflict Restitution

I. Beah, Ishmeal, 2007, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Farrar. Selections B

 

K. Peters and P. Richards, Why We Fight: Voices of youth combatants in Sierra Leone, Africa, 1998, 68/2, 183-224. E

 

T April 8 Youth, Culture and Crisis

Wrap-up Discussion

Hand-out Paper #3: Youth, Culture and Conflict in Africa

R April 10

Library Research Day for Paper #3: Youth, Culture and Conflict in Africa

 

T April 15 Presentations

Paper #3: Youth, Culture and Conflict in Africa

Paper Due and In-class discussion and presentations

 

R April 17 Review Session

T April 22 Analytic Essays In-class