Unit name | Postcolonial Africa: Politics, Society and Culture (Level I Special Field) |
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Unit code | HIST26027 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Dr. Rob Skinner |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
HIST23008 Special Field Project |
School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit focuses on the history of post-independence Africa from the 1950s through to the present. It seeks to challenge pre-conceptions of this period as one of unremitting decline, disaster and crisis – without denying the reality of conflict and political failure. While recent observers have characterized the past half century in calamitous terms, a critical historical approach moves beyond the dichotomy of ‘good news’ versus ‘bad news’ often associated with African issues. Should we, in fact, talk of ‘African’ issues at all, given the environmental, social and cultural diversity of the continent? The Unit explores the contemporary political, social and cultural history of sub-Saharan Africa through comparative studies of specific states and regions. The themes of the unit will include the political ideologies of post-independence leaders; militarism, autocracy and one-party rule; the influence of ‘tradition’; poverty, economic development and decline; cultural production and popular culture.
Aims:
By the end of the unit students should have:
1 x 2 hour exam
Frederick Cooper, Africa Since 1940 – The Past of the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Paul Nugent, Africa Since Independence (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
Martin Meredith, The State of Africa (London: Free Press, 2006)
Robert Guest, The Shackled Continent: Africa’s Past Present and Future (London: Pan Macmillan, 2004)
Roy Richard Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner (eds), Perspectives on Africa: a reader in culture, history, and representation (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997)