Critical Social Inquiry 0212 - African Narratives: Kingdoms, Freedoms, Dreams

The peoples, philosophies, arts, and cultural resources of Africa have made and continue to make fundamental contributions to every society on earth - particularly to visionings of humanity, justice, liberation, and community. Yet, from the imperial United States, Africa is often the least considered continent, its diverse peoples and realities obscured by racist stereotypes rooted in the long and ongoing history of European colonialisms and empire. This introduction to African narratives, focused on key historical, modern and contemporary African texts of different genres, unfolds in three parts. Through early epic poems, we encounter precolonial African kingdoms; next, we engage anti-colonial texts and confront European imperialism in Africa; we end the semester by engaging contemporary fictions and philosophy. Works we may consider include: Sundiata and Mwindo, Fanon, Cesaire, Diop, Kenyatta, p'Bitek, Lumumba, wa Thion'go, Achebe, Ba, Biko, el Sadawi, Rugero,Tadjo and Sarr. Keywords:Africa, African literature, politics, colonialism, decolonisation

In/Justice Students should expect to spend 8 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time. The content of this course deals with issues of Race and Power. FILMS Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks (1995, dir. Isaac Julien) Kemtiyu, Cheikh Anta (2016, dir. Ousmane Mbaye) Lumumba (2011, dir. Raoul Peck) Rafiki (2018, dir. Wanuri Kahiu) Books: Title:Sundiata, an Epic of Old Mali Author:D.T. Niane Title:Baho! Author:Roland Rugero Title:Things Fall Apart Author:Chinua Achebe Title:Decolonizing the Mind Author:Ngugi wa Thiong'o Title:Woman at Point Zero Author:Nawal el Saddawi Title:Discourse on Colonialism Author:Aime Cesaire