FAYETTEVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY  College of Arts and Sciences  Department of Government and History

DIANNE W. OYLER, Ph.D.  TEACHING | Advising and Service | Research | Background | Links | Home

I. LOCATOR INFORMATION
 
 

II. COURSE DESCRIPTION:
 

This course focuses on the study of the political, economic, and strategic interests of the Great Powers in colonies and former colonial possessions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from the African Perspective.

The course is designed to introduce students to the principal themes of African history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In particular, we will examine the increasingly rapid incorporation of Africa into a Western-dominated world by focusing on African responses to the processes of economic subordination, colonial rule, and "cultural imperialism." Rather than attempt to provide a chronological overview of the entire continent, the class will concentrate on representative case studies from which students can build an understanding that will be the basis for individual, independent research projects

III. TEXTS:
 

Boahen, A. Adu. (Editor) Africa under Colonial Domination 1880-1935 General History of Africa Volume VII. Berkeley, CA: James Currey and University of California Press, 1990.

Boahen, A. Adu. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

Mamdani, Mahmood Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Unviersity Press, 1996.

REQUIRED RESERVE READINGS:  (Available in the Library)

Martin, Phyllis M. and Patrick O’Meara. Editors. Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995.

Crowder, Michael. West Africa Under Colonial Rule, London: Hutchinson University Library for Africa, 1981.

IV. BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES (and COMPETENCIES):
 

Upon completion of this course, a student will be able to analyze change and continuity overtime, organize historical evidence, and ask and answer critical questions about the past. The student will also be able to demonstrate knowledge of people and events across time, to be used as building blocks for critical interpretation and understanding of the past. In addition, a student will be able to identify the enduring themes of the historical experience and discuss history as a discipline. Moreover, the student will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the historical role of both common and diverse cultural traditions that constitute Western Civilization. Finally, the student will be able to illustrate the cultural products that past societies have regarded as aesthetically pleasing and the ways in which they were produced.

STUDENT OUTCOMES: Students who complete this course will:

Apply critical and analytical skills through the study of African colonial history;

Write critically and analytically;

Apply historical methodology by utilizing both primary and secondary sources including journals, monographs, and the plastic arts;

Explore the relationship of colonial heritage found in sub-Saharan African with that of peoples colonized by the same European nation state in other parts of the world.

Analyze and compare the universal aspects of European domination and cultural interaction found within sub-Saharan Africa and with Asian colonies of the same colonizing power.

V. EVALUATION CRITERIA/GRADING SCALE:
 

1. Grades will be based on three examinations, writing assignments, and class participation. Each exam will be based on the units of study immediately preceding it and will be written in a blue book which may be purchased in the book store. The class may determine the size of the blue book to be used.

NOTE: YOU SHOULD NEVER MISS A SCHEDULED EXAM. UNLESS THE ABSENCE IS EXCUSED WITH PROPER DOCUMENTATION, THE MAKE-UP EXAM GRADE WILL BE REDUCED BY ONE LETTER GRADE AS A PENALTY FOR ABSENCE. MAKE-UP EXAMS ARE AT THE SOLE DISCRETION OF THE INSTRUCTOR.

SPECIAL NOTE ON ACADEMIC HONESTY: Students should be aware that a university is a community of scholars committed to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge and truth. Without the freedom to investigate all materials, scrupulous honesty in reporting findings, and proper acknowledgment of credit, such a community can not survive. Students are expected to adhere to the highest traditions of scholarship. Any infractions of these traditions, such as plagiarism, are not tolerated. Though we do not anticipate any such occurrence, for the record, misrepresenting someone else's words or ideas as one's own, constitutes plagiarism. In cases where plagiarism occurs, the instructor has the right to penalize the student(s) as he or she thinks appropriate. One guide line holds that the first offence = failure of the assignment; the second offence = failure of the course.

Grades and their numerical equivalents are as follows:

2. INSTRUCTOR POLICIES
 
a. MAKE-UP WORK
1. EXAMS: Unless the absence is excused with proper documentation, the make-up exam grade with be reduced by one letter grade as a penalty for absence. Make-up exams are at the sole discretion of the instructor. Missed exams caused by an excused absence must be made up WITHIN ONE WEEK unless illness or emergency necessitates a longer absence from school.
2. Missed due date of the assignment. This applies to writing assignments--SUBTRACT ONE LETTER GRADE.
3. No make-up work will be accepted the last week of classes.
b. EXTRA CREDIT may be earned through cultural reaction papers turned in with the exam.  GUIDE

HERSTORY PRESENTATION:        Guide

Links:     Women of Achievement and Herstory; Women's History Month Collection; 100 Most Important Women of World History; National Women's Hall of Fame.

 

c. As a rule, I do not give an incomplete. If you choose not to complete the class please formally withdraw from it.

VI. COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Assignments:  

ASSIGNMENTS for this class will include reading, writing, and special projects to include:

One Research Paper the focus of which will be a comparative paper on the approach to Governance by one European Colonial Administration during the 19^th and 20^th centuries to two (2) separate areas on the continent of Africa OR compare Governance by One European Colonial Administration during the 19^th and 20^th centuries to one African area and one Asian area.

Two Book Reviews: books should focus on Colonial Government in Africa and may be used as part of the research bibliography.

                                        One Oral presentation of Research Findings

Participation

 

Attendance and Punctuality: Students are responsible for material covered and assignments.

Class Participation: All students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned material, so it is important to complete all the assigned readings before coming to class. Any student may, at any time, be called upon to recite or to write a short essay on the assigned material. Short quizzes may be given on assigned materials at any time. Students are expected to understand the material, or at least have identified those items that they do not yet understand in order to ask question in class. The instructor will assume that students know the material and are prepared to discuss it. Students are responsible for all work assigned in this class, whether or not they are present. Assignments must be completed on time.

Students are expected to observe normal courtesy in class. They are expected to pay attention to the instructor, to take detailed notes, to refrain from personal conversations, and to avoid any other behavior which is disruptive and disturbing to others. A student who does not observe these courtesies may be asked to leave the room.

This course is designed to help improve your proficiency in note-taking, library skills, logical and analytical thinking and writing, and critical evaluation.

VII. TEACHING STRATEGIES
 

The mode of presentation for the course will be lecture/student discussion. There will be opportunities for cooperative learning. I encourage peer teaching and recommend students to work together through study groups. I want to emphasize the critical analysis of data--information you read and see on film/video and the communication of your ideas supported by facts. While these skills are important to the course work at hand, they are most important in your life's work where you read, listen, evaluate, articulate, communicate your understanding, ideas, and opinions on a daily basis. These activities will give you practice in these areas.

VIII. DISCUSSION/LECTURE TOPICS AND READING/WRITING ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES: MONTHLY CALENDARS TO FOLLOW
 
 

IX. REFERENCES
 

African Studies Review. Rutgers University Press.

Aguekum, Group Captain Peter Kwame. The Gold Coast--Her March to the Independent State of Ghana: A Bird’s Eye-View. Accra, Ghana: New Times Corp. 1998.

Ajayi, J.F. Ade and Michael Crowder. (Editors) History of West Africa Volume 1. 3^rd Edition. London: Longman, 1987.

Ajayi and Michael Crowder. History of West Africa Volume 2. 2^nd Edition. London: Longman, 1987.

Bender, Gerald J. Angola under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1978.

Bedu-Addo, Jerry. Ghana: Traveller’s Guide--The Ghanaian People, their History and Culture. Accra, Ghana: Books on African Studies, 1999

Bennet, Norman Robert. Arab Versus European: Diplomacy and War in Nineteenth-Century East Central Africa. New York: Africana Publishing Co., 1986.

Binns, Tony. Tropical Africa. New York: Routledge Press, 1994.

Boahen,A., J.F. Ade Ajayi, and Michael Tidy Topics in West African History. London: Longman, 1986.

Buah, F.K. A History of Ghana. London: MacMillan Education Ltd., 1995. ISBN 0-333-29515-3

Cartey, Wilfred and Martin Kilson. Africa Reader: Colonial Africa. New York: Vintage Books, 1970

Cohen, William B. The French Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530-1880. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1980.

Collins, Robert O. Western African History: Vol. I of African History: Text and Readings. New York: Marcus Wiener,1990.

Coundouriotis, Eleni. Claiming History: Colonialism, Ethnography, and the Novel. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Crowder, Michael. West Africa under Colonial Rule. London: Hutchinson University Library for Africa, 1981.

Crowder, Michael. (Editor) West African Resistance: The Military Response to Colonial Occupation. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation, 1971.

Cruise O'Brien, Donal B., John Dunn and Richard Rathbone. Contemporary West African Societies. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Cudjoe, Selwyn R. (Editor). Eric E. Williams Speaks: Essays on Colonialism and Independence. Wellesley, MA. Calaloux Publications, 1993.

Elphick, Richard and Hermann Giliomee. The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988.

.Forde, Daryll and P.M.Kaberry. (Editors) West African Kingdoms in The Nineteenth Century

London: International African Institute byu Oxford University Press, 1971.

Freund, William. The Making of Contemporary Africa: The Development of African Society since 1800. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Press, 1984.

Gann, L.H. and Peter Duigan. Burden of Empire: An Appraisal of Western Colonialism in Africa South of the Sahara. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1977.

Hodgkin, Thomas. Nationalism in Colonial Africa. New York: New York University Press, 1957.

Hopkins, A.G . An Economic History of West Africa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1973.

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Illife John. A Modern History of Tanganyika. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

International Journal of African History. Boston, MA: Boston University Press.

Isaacman, Allen. Mozambique: from Colonialism to Revolution 1900-1982.

Journal of African History. New York: Cambridge University Press

Journal of Third World Studies. Georgia Southwestern State University Press

Kenyatta, Jomo. Facing Mt. Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.

Kilson, Martin. Political Change in West African State: A Study of the Modernization Process in Sierra Leone. New York: Atheneum Press (1^st published by Harvard University Press), 1969.

Lichtheim, George. Imperialism. New York: Praeger, 1971.

Mann, Kristin and Richard Roberts. (Editors) Law in Colonial Africa. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991.

Manning, Patrick. Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa 1880-1985. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1967.

Nkrumah, Kwame. Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. New York: International Publishers, 1971.

Nadel, George H. and Perry Curtis. Imperialism and Colonialism. New York: Macmillan Co., 1964.

Nkrumah, Kwame. Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. New York: International Publishers, 1965.

Nicol, Davidson. (Editor). Black Nationalism in Africa 1867: Extracts from the political, educational, scientific and medical writings of Africanus Horton. New York: Africana Publishing Corporation., 1969.

Osterhammel, Jürgen. Colonialism. : A Theoretical Overview. Princeton, NJ: Marcus Wiener Publishers, 1999.

Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa: White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876-1912. New York: Avon Books, 1991.

Pierson, Ruth Roach and Nupur Chaudhuri. Editor. Nation, Empire, Colony: Historicizing Gender and Race. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Ranger, Terrence. Peasant Consciousness Guerilla War in Zimbabwe: A Comparative Study. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985.

Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1982.

Thornton, A. P. Doctrines of Imperialism. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1965.

Vansina, Jan. Kingdoms of the Savanna: A History of Central African States until European Occupation. Madison, WI: Wisconsin University Press, 1970.

Webster, J.B. and A. Adu Boahen with Michael Tidy The Revolutionary Years: Africa Since 1800 London: Longman, 1980.

Wilson, Henry S. Origins of West African Nationalism. London: MacMillan Press, 1969.

Wolfe, Eric R. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1982.