AFRICA BEFORE COLONIALIZATION

Course Description: The German philosopher G. H. F. Hegel infamously stated in a lecture in 1830, which would go on to be published in Philosophy of History, that Africa “is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit.” The perception of Africa as the “Dark Continent,” a wild place that was without “civilization” until European colonists arrived, continued well after Hegel. In the 1960s, a history professor at Oxford University pondered, “Perhaps in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But, at present there is none: there is only the history of the Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness…” And in a speech given in 2017, historian Niall Ferguson listed twenty “significant” topics of history, only one of which—decolonization—had any connection to Africa. In this class, we will bust these myths about Africa’s history by exploring the richness of the African deep past, from the Ancient world up until the period of the Atlantic slave trade. Because Africa is a vast and diverse continent, and since we will be covering a large time period, it will be impossible to cover all the potential topics. However, you will be introduced to the major changes and continuities that occurred in five major regions of Africa: North Africa, West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. This exploration will introduce you to different methods of historical research, some particular to the study of the deep past, such as archaeology, historical linguistics, the study of oral tradition, and archival documents. This course is designed for all undergraduates, and requires no background knowledge.

Course Objectives: By the end of the semester students will:

• Have a general knowledge of the deep past in five major regions of Africa. • Be aware of different historical methods used to learn about early history. • Know the geographic features of Africa. • Learn about the Atlantic and Saharan slave trades, and their aftermath. • Understand how race and racism has impacted scholarship of Africa. • Improve their critical thinking skills

Assignments:

• Reading Responses: Students must write 1pg (double-spaced) reading responses for twelve out of the twenty-eight days. These will be graded on a check scale, and contribute to your commitment grade. These responses should provide an overview of the main arguments of the text(s). Once this is done, students may use the rest of their response to presenting points of confusion, disagreement, or particular interest.

• Precolonial City Travel Brochure: Pick one precolonial city, and specify in which century [i.e. many precolonial cities lasted several centuries, but please pick a more narrow time-frame]. It can be from anywhere in Africa, from any time period. [Some ideas: Benin City, Kano, Timbuktu, Kumasi, Kilwa, Mogadishu, etc.] Pretend we live in a world where time-travel exists and write a brief [500 words] mock travel brochure. Make sure you include basic information like the name, location, time period, number of inhabitants, etc. Also include the type of information that might attract visitors (like arts and culture, notable architecture, cuisine, etc.) as well as useful information for tourists (transportation, economy, religion, etc.). Don’t worry about covering everything, and please try to include a few pictures if you can! In order to find information, the Internet is fine, but please use at least three articles or book found through the library catalog. And cite all your sources!

• Map Quiz #1 and #2: The first will be on the geographic features of Africa (rivers,

mountains, deserts, etc.), and the second will be on political states, kingdoms, empires, etc. in Africa. Two maps with all of the information you need to know will be handed out on the first day of class, and uploaded to the course site.

• Exams: Midterm and Final: There will be two examinations designed to give you an

opportunity to demonstrate your control over the course material and your thoughtful reflection on the historical themes examined during class and in the readings. Each exam will be composed of matching, short ID’s, and essay components. The final examination will not be cumulative and will encompass only the material covered since the Midterm.

• Film Review: I will preselect a handful of films that depict a moment of the African past, and they will be available to check out from the library reserves. You are expected to write a 2pg (double-spaced) review of the film, which should reference relevant readings from class.

Grades: Commitment: 25% Precolonial City Travel Brochure: 11% Film Review: 14% Map Quiz #1: 5% Map Quiz #2: 5% Midterm: 20% Final Exam: 20% Commitment: Quite simply, the commitment grade measures how much you showed me that you cared about the course, about what we did in class, what we read, and the ideas we dealt with. A teacher sees commitment to the course in many ways: attendance & participation in class, quality of reading responses, improvement, observation of deadlines, respectful treatment of teachers & classmates, office hour visits, engagement in writing, etc. Required Texts:

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, second edition, 2016 (make sure you get this version) • Cheik Anta Diop, The African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality, Chicago Review

Press, 1989. (any edition is fine) • Djibril T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, Pearson; 2006 (any edition is fine) • Thornton, John. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the

Antonian movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge University Press, 1998 Schedule:

Introductions Day 1: Welcome! Reading:

• The Syllabus* In-class Activities: Ice-breaker activity. Going over the syllabus. Day 2: Methods and Challenges of Ancient History in Africa Readings:

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, Chapter 1-3 (just skim Chapter 2-3: my lecture in class will cover all the key points)

• “Africa in World History: The Long, Long View” Curtis Keim, “Africans Live in Tribes, Don’t They?” Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind (2009)*

• Carl Zimmer, “A Single Migration from Africa Populated the World, Studies Find,” The New York Times, Sept. 21, 2016*

In-class Activities: Lecture on the beginnings of African history before and after agriculture. Discussion of the reading.

Ancient Egypt and Nubia Day 3: African Civilizations on the Nile Reading:

• Stanley Burstein, ed., Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum (2009), 3-21, 53-64; 97-114*

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.136-48; 193-201* In-class Activities: Lecture on Ancient Egypt and Nubia. Watch the film, Black Athena. Day 4: Racial Politics and the Birth of Civilization Reading:

• Cheik Anta Diop, The African Origins of Civilization, pp.1-84 (Optional: pp.134-178) In-class Activities: Discussion of the reading and the Black Athena debate.

The Great Lakes Day 5: Environmental History and Politics in Early East Africa Readings:

• David L. Schoenbrun "We Are What We Eat: Ancient Agriculture between the Great Lakes," The Journal of African History 34, no. 1 (1993): 1-31*

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa (Selections TBA) In-class Activities: Watch selections from the film, Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Bunyoro and Buganda. Mini-lecture on Early East African history and discussion of the reading. Day 6: Kinship, Healing, and Society in Early Uganda Reading:

• Rhiannon Stephens, "Birthing Wealth? Motherhood and Poverty in East-Central Uganda, c. 700–1900," Past & Present 215 (May 2012): 235-268*

• Kodesh, Neil. "History from the Healer's Shrine: Genre, Historical Imagination, and Early Ganda History." Comparative Studies in Society and History 49, no. 3 (2007): 527-52*

In-class Activities: Discussion of the reading. Assignment: Map Quiz #1 in class.

Early Christianity in Africa Day 7: Early Christianity in Africa Reading:

• Meinardus, Otto. “Egyptian Christians as Citizens of an Islamic Society in the Middle Ages.” In Christians in Egypt: Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Communities Past and Present, by Otto Meindarus, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2006, pp.15-32*

• Williams, Jennifer. "From Aset to Jesus: The History of the Goddess Aset in Ancient Kemet From Circa 3000 BCE Until the Removal of Feminine Salvation Circa 400 CE." Journal of Black Studies 45, no. 2 (2014): 102-24*

In-class Activities: Lecture on the spread of Christianity in North Africa/Ethiopia. Discussion of the reading. Day 8: Christianity in Medieval Ethiopia Reading:

• Selections from Gälawdewos, The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros: A Seventeenth-Century African Biography of an Ethiopian Woman, translated and edited by Wendy Laura Belcher and Michael Kleiner (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015)*

• O’Mahony, Anthony, “Between Islam and Christendom: The Ethiopian Community in Jerusalem before 1517,” Medieval Encounters, Vol. 2, No.2, January 1996, pp.140-154*

• Ehret, pp.123-131; 201-213* In-class Activities: Lecture on Christianity in Medieval Ethiopia. Primary source exercise using art and artifacts. Discussion of the reading.

The Swahili Coast Day 9: Overview Readings:

• Selections from Derek Nurse and Thomas Spear, The Swahili: Reconstructing the History and Language of an African Society, 800 - 1500 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985)*

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.164-171; 179-185; 238-241* In-class Activities: Watch selections from the film by Henry Louis Gates Jr., “The Swahili Coast.” Mini lecture on the Swahili coast. Discussion of the reading. Day 10: Trade and Cosmopolitanism Readings:

• Thomas Genscheimer, “Globalization and the Medieval Swahili City,” in Globalization and Urbanization in Africa (2004), 171-185*

• Ibn Battuta, “The East African Coast,” Documents from the African Past (2001), 8-14* In-class Activities: Discussion of the reading. Primary source analysis of Ibn Battuta. Assignment: Map Quiz #2 in class.

The Congo Basin Day 11: The Bantu Expansion, Economic Life, to 500 C.E. Readings:

• Jan Vansina, “New Linguistic Evidence and 'the Bantu Expansion',” The Journal of African History, Vol. 36, No. 2 (1995), 173-195*

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.47- 49; 106-116; 185-188 In-class Activities: Lecture on the Bantu expansion and early history of the Congo Basin. Discussion of the reading and historical methods.

Day 12: Wealth in People, Politics, and Daily Life 500 C.E.-1200 C.E. Readings:

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.252-268 • Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforest, Chapter 3*

In-class Activities: Lecture on the development of the Congo Basin. Historical linguistics activity. Discussion of the reading.

Southern Africa + Midterm Day 13: Southeastern Africa & Great Zimbabwe Readings:

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.171-179; 229-238; 241-250 • Henrika Kuklick, “Contested Monuments: The Politics of Archeology in Southern

Africa,” Colonial Situations (1991), 135-169* In-class Activities: Lecture on Southern African history up to 1200 C.E. Watch selections of The City of Great Zimbabwe from Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s PBS, Africa's Great Civilizations series. Day 14: Midterm! Reading: None. In-class Activities: Taking the midterm. Good luck!

Savanna Empires and Islam Day 15: Trade and Towns between North and sub-Saharan Africa Readings:

• Roderick McIntosh and Susan McIntosh, “Finding Jenne-Jeno, West Africa’s Oldest City,” National Geographic 162: 3 (1982), 396-418*

• McDougall, E. Ann. "Salts of the Western Sahara: Myths, Mysteries, and Historical Significance." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 23, no. 2 (1990): 231-57*

• Lydon, G. (2015). “Saharan Oceans and Bridges, Barriers and Divides in Africa’s Historiographical Landcape.”Journal of African History, 56(1), pp.3-15 (stop when you get to the section called “Recent Saharan History and Trans-Saharan Research) *

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.300-305 In-class Activities: Lecture on Saharan trade, and the racial politics of this history. Discussion of the reading. Day 16: Trans-Saharan Trade Routes and Islam Readings:

• John Hunwick, "Secular Power and Religious Authority in Muslim Society: The Case of Songhay." The Journal of African History 37, no. 2 (1996): 175-94*

• Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias, "Intellectual Innovation and Reinvention in the Sahel: The Seventeenth-Century Timbuktu Chronicles," in Shamil Jeppie and Souleymane Bachir Diagne (eds.), The Meanings of Timbuktu*

• Al-Bakri, “Ghana and the customs of its inhabitants,” in Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History, ed. Nehemia Levtzion (1980), 62-63, 79-87*

In-class Activities: Lecture on the spread of Islam to North and West Africa. Discussion of the reading. Source analysis of the Al-Bakri.

Oral Tradition and the Politics of History Day 17: The Malian Empire Reading:

• Jansen, Jan. "In Defense of Mali’s Gold: The Political and Military Organization of the Northern Upper Niger, C. 1650–c. 1850." Journal of West African History 1, no. 1 (2015): 1-36*

• First half of Djibril T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali • Ehret, Civilizations of Africa

In-class Activities: Mini lecture on the Malian Empire. Discussion of the reading. Assignment: Precolonial City Travel Brochure Day 18: Old Traditions Reading:

• Finish Djibril T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali • Jansen, Jan. “The Intimacy of Belonging: Literacy and the Experience of Sunjata in

Mali.” History in Africa 38 (2011): pp.103-22* In-class Activities: Discussing the reading.

West African States and Kingdoms Day 19: Economic and Political Life in Igbo Ukwu Reading:

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa, pp.57-69; 224-226; 306-310 • Ch. 6. “Brilliance beneath the trees: the West African forest and its fringes” in African

Civilizations, by Graham Connah, 1987* • Shaw, Thurstan. "Those Igbo-Ukwu Radiocarbon Dates: Facts, Fictions and

Probabilities." The Journal of African History 16, no. 4 (1975): 503-17* • Insoll, Timothy, and Thurstan Shaw. "Gao and Igbo-Ukwu: Beads, Interregional Trade,

and Beyond." The African Archaeological Review 14, no. 1 (1997): 9-23* In-class Activities: Lecture on Igbo Ukwu. Discussion of reading and archaeology (and its challenges) Day 20: Ancient Benin and Yoruba States Reading:

• Ehret, Civilizations of Africa pp.349-351 • Bondarenko, Dmitri M., and Peter M. Roese. "Between the Ogiso and Oba Dynasties: An

Interpretation of Interregnum in the Benin Kingdom." History in Africa 31 (2004): 103-15*

• Jarocki, Barbara. "Images of Power: Art of the Royal Court of Benin." African Arts 14, no. 4 (1981): 72-74*

• Law, Robin. "How Many Times Can History Repeat Itself? Some Problems in the Traditional History of Oyo." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 18, no. 1 (1985): 33-51*

• Andrew Apter, "Traditions Reviewed: Ancient Ife and Old Oyo," Ch. 1 in Black Critics and Kings: The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 13-34*

In-class Activities: Lecture on Benin and Yoruba State formation. Primary source exercise with Samuel Johnson's History of the Yorubas [1921] PART II: SLAVERY, SLAVE TRADES AND EUROPEAN ENCOUNTERS

Slavery in Senegambia/Sahel Day 21: African “Traditional” Religion and the Diola Reading:

• Chapter 3 “The Origins of the Diola-Esulalu,” Chapter 4 “Koonjaen, Floup, and the Forging of a Diola-Esulalu Religions Tradition in the Eighteenth Century” in Chapter 5 “Slaves, Trade, and Religious Change in Eighteenth-Century Esulalu” in Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia by Robert Baum, pp.62-129*

In-class Activities: Discussion of the reading. Primary source activity with depictions of precolonial Senegambia in European travelogues. Day 22: Islam and the Atlantic Slave Trade Reading:

• Chapter 3 “The Book in Chains: Slavery and Revolution in Senegambia, 1770–1890” in The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa by Rudolph Ware, 2014, pp.110–162*

• Ware, Rudolph, Ch. 3, “Slavery in Islamic Africa, 1400-1800”, in The Cambridge World History of Slavery, Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 47-80*

In-class Activities: Watch selections of Roots 1977 and 2016. Discussion of the reading and current debates on historical interpretations of African participation in slave trade. Day 23: Islam, Race, and the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade Reading:

• Chapter 1 “Making Race in the Sahel, c.1600–1900,” in A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600–1960, Bruce Hall, pp.34–68*

• Cleaveland, Timothy. “Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti and his Islamic critique of racial slavery in the Maghrib,” The Journal of North African Studies, 2015, pp.42-64*

(note: the Hall provides historical context for Cleaveland’s article, so read in order) In-class Activities: Mini lecture on race in the precolonial Sahel, discussion of the reading.

Slavery in Central Africa

Day 24: Atlantic Slave Trade and Coastal Catholics Reading:

• Thornton, John. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge University Press, 1998 (selections TBA)

In-class Activities: Mini lecture on early Portuguese trade in Kongo. Discussion of the reading. Day 25: Atlantic Slave Trade and Coastal Catholics (cont.) Reading:

• Thornton, John. The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684–1706. Cambridge University Press, 1998 (selections TBA)

In-class Activities: Discussion of the reading. Primary source exercise. Assignment: Film Review due.

The Slow End of Slavery: Ironies and Abolition Day 26: Abolition and the Transition to Legitimate Trade Reading:

• Lacqua, Daniel. “The Tensions of Internationalism: Transnational Anti-Slavery in the 1880s and 1890s,” The International History Review, 2011, pp.706–726*

• Robin Law, “The Transition from the Slave Trade to ‘Legitimate’ Commerce,” From Chains to Bonds: The Slave Trade Revisited, edted by Doudou Diene (2001), pp.24-35*

In-class Activities: Lecture on Abolitionism and Anti-Slavery. Primary source analysis of documents by abolitionists. Discussion of the reading. Day 27: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade Reading:

• Walter Rodney, "Europe and the Roots of African Underdevelopment - To 1885," ch. 4 of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa*

• Emmanuel Akyeampong, “History, Memory, Slave-Trade and Slavery in Anlo (Ghana),” Slavery and Abolition, 22:3 (2001), pp.1-24*

In-class Activities: Lecture on the short-term and long-term impacts of the Atlantic slave trade. Discussion of the reading. Day 28: Last Day of Class! Reading: None. In-class Activities: Exam Review