History 158 - Modern Africa

This course provides an introductory survey of African history from the nineteenth century to approximately World War II. In doing so, it provides a political, social, and economic history of the continent framed around the experiences of the continent’s peoples. Throughout the course, students ask the structural questions of what role slavery, abolition, colonialism, global industrialization, and capitalism played in shaping the continent’s past. Much more importantly, though, the course aims to focus the discussions on how African peoples understood, negotiated, and contested these structural phenomena in their daily lives—politically, socially, culturally, and spiritually. Enrollment limited to 40.