Contemporary African Worlds (255-0-1)

Instructors

Adia Benton
847/491-2852
1812 Hinman #101

Meeting Info

ANTHRO Sem Rm 104 - 1810 Hinmn: Mon, Wed 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

Visions of "Africa" today often revolve around a set of tropes developed in the 19th century: a continent benighted, undeveloped, helpless, chaotic, famine-ridden, and incapable of self-governance. In this class, we will directly challenge these tropes, viewing contemporary Africa from a cultural anthropological perspective. Using the conceptual tools of anthropology, we will identify the values presupposed by such discourses and worldviews, and consider alternative intellectual traditions, visions and insights emerging from scholarship in, of, about and from the continent. Specifically, we will explore areas critical to understanding contemporary African cultures - music, cinema, literature, health, technology, politics and economy, among others. We will reflect upon ethical engagement with and representations of Africa/ns. Through these perspectives from Africa, we will have the opportunity to reflect on central human questions about the nature of power, hierarchy, exchange, identity and belonging.

Learning Objectives

In alignment with the learning objectives for Weinberg College's foundational disciplines for ethical and evaluative thinking, the course has the following general learning objectives:
• Understand and apply the conceptual tools, i.e., the analytical frameworks, theories and concepts, from cultural anthropology required to recognize and understand prescriptive issues, questions, and claims, related to the anthropological study of contemporary Africa and to distinguish them from descriptive issues, questions and claims
• Identify the values presupposed by dominant outlooks, discourses and worldviews about African societies.
• Recognize the myriad ethical issues underlying the study of African cultures and contemporary social worlds.
• Appreciate and recognize the insights offered by intellectual and philosophical traditions originating with African/ist scholars for understanding the historical social movements shaping contemporary African societies.
• Reflect upon and communicate, in oral and written work, one's own answers to evaluative questions, the presuppositions informing them, and the reasons for supporting them. • Engage in respectful, rigorous and constructive dialogue about contemporary issues in African societies and communicate thoughtfully and clearly about them in both spoken and written assignments. More specific aims for the student learning include: (1) identifying and describing crucial themes and schools of thought in the anthropology of Africa, including: governance; kinship; development; autochthony, identity and belonging; art and aesthetics; and gender; (2) developing a historical understanding of the value systems and social movements shaping contemporary African societies and their cultural products: nationalism; anticolonialism and decolonization; pan-Africanism; Negritude; ubuntu; etc.; (3) demonstrating competency in reading and interpreting graphic, textual and audiovisual material (e.g. film, social and news media, diagrams, comics, photography); (4) evaluating and analyzing primary and secondary sources from and about the continent to construct and communicate cogent, oral and written arguments, supported by evidence.

In accordance with the global perspectives on power, justice, and equity overlay, students will:
• Evaluate and analyze primary and secondary sources describing the historical and contemporary structures, processes, human-environment relationships, and practices that shape relations among groups, cultural traditions, and nations within Africa.
• Explore the social, political, environmental, and cultural bases for the constitution of "Africa" and grassroots, local, regional and African efforts to constitute itself.
• Generate the knowledge and develop the analytical skills necessary to examine key issues related to: governance; gender and kinship; development; autochthony/indigeneity, identity and belonging; art and aesthetics; colonialism and empire.
• Analyze how these concepts interact in dynamic relation to each other, and the ways that anthropology as a discipline centers attention to various expressions and articulations of these locally.

Class Materials (Required)

All reading will be made available through Canvas and NU Library.

Class Attributes

Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Disci
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
Ethics & Values Distro Area

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Anthropology majors and minors until the end of preregistration, after which time enrollment will be open to everyone who has taken the prerequisites.