African Studies

AFRICAST 31. Media and Conflict in Africa. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the variety of roles played by local and international media in covering conflict situations across the continent in the late 20t- and early 21st-centuries. The objective is to develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of the media as active participants in conflicts, rather than neutral witnesses. How the media in the African context have become tools for propaganda and for encouraging violence, as well as their role in promoting dialogue, peace and reconciliation between communities. These questions are relevant to the context of contemporary Africa where conflicts fueled by ethnic hatred or democratic aspirations have unfolded along with the development of media and communication technologies. Key concepts such as objectivity, impartiality, hate speech, peace journalism, citizen journalism, and cosmopolitanism, to analyze the role played by the media in case studies in Burundi, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. A wide variety of material including: readings drawn from a fields such as media and journalism studies, political sciences, anthropology, and postcolonial theory; linguistic, visual, audio, video and multimedia material produced by news media; and films and documentaries.
Same as: AFRICAST 131

AFRICAST 48S. History of Health, Science and Medicine in 20th Century Africa. 5 Units.

This course will examine the impact of colonial policies and post-colonial development on patterns of sickness, wellness and health care in twentieth century sub-Saharan Africa. Some topics will include: the role of colonial science in the formulation of ideas about race, colonial epidemics, labor migration and disease, urban health, encounters between African healers and biomedicine, histories of HIV/AIDS, the impact of debt and Structural Adjustment Programs on public health, and the politics of humanitarian interventions in African health. Priority given to history majors and minors.
Same as: ANTHRO 48S, HISTORY 48S

AFRICAST 72SI. Conflict in the Congo. 1-2 Unit.

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AFRICAST 109. Running While Others Walk: African Perspectives on Development. 5 Units.

Throughout the history of modern Africa, Africans have specified their desired future¿development, understood broadly¿and identified the major obstacles in achieving it. Debates about development have intensified in the post-colonial period, especially as African countries have replaced the leaders installed at independence. Amidst the general critique of the imposition of external values and rules, Africans have differed, sometimes sharply, on priorities, process, and programs. While for some the challenge is to catch up with development elsewhere, for others it is essential to leap ahead, to set the pace, to initiate a radical social, economic, and political transformation. To ground and extend the common approaches to studying development that emphasize economics and that rely largely on external commentators, we will explore African perspectives. Our major task will be a broad overview, sampling the analyses of Africa¿s intellectuals in several domains. Course participants will review, compare, and analyze major contributions, developing an understanding of contemporary intellectual currents.
Same as: AFRICAST 209

AFRICAST 111. Education for All? The Global and Local in Public Policy Making in Africa. 5 Units.

Policy making in Africa and the intersection of policy processes and their political and economic dimensions. The failure to implement agreements by international institutions, national governments, and nongovernmental organizations to promote education. Case studies of crowded and poorly equipped schools, overburdened and underprepared teachers, and underfunded education systems.
Same as: AFRICAST 211

AFRICAST 112. AIDS, Literacy, and Land: Foreign Aid and Development in Africa. 5 Units.

Is foreign aid a solution? or a problem? Should there be more aid, less aid, or none at all? How do foreign aid and local initiatives intersect? A clinic in Uganda that addresses AIDS as a family and community problem. Multiple strategies in Tanzania to increase girls' schooling. These are imaginative and innovative approaches to pressing and contested policy challenges. We will examine several contentious issues in contemporary Africa, exploring their roots and the intense conflicts they engender, with special attention to foreign aid and the aid relationship. As African communities and countries work to shape their future, what are the foreign roles and what are their consequences?.
Same as: AFRICAAM 111, AFRICAST 212

AFRICAST 115. South African Encounters. 1 Unit.

This course is a prerequisite for all those accepted to or on the wait list for the following quarter's BOSP Cape Town term abroad. It will explore issues in contemporary South Africa.
Same as: AFRICAAM 115

AFRICAST 116. Islam in Africa through the Arts. 5 Units.

This course will survey the history of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa through their arts. Covering three periods (Pre-colonial, Colonial, and Post-colonial), and four geographic regions (North, East, West, and Southern Africa), the course will explore the various forms and functions of Qur anic recitation and calligraphy, architecture, illumination, dress, poetry, music, literature, portraiture, and the contemporary cinematic arts of Muslim societies on the continent from a variety of perspectives (spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic, social, political, etc.). Through these artistic works and traditions we will explore the general themes of philosophy/ theology/ mysticism, trade, Islam s relationship with other religions, state formation and revolution, gender and ethnic dynamics, colonial constructions of religious identity, diasporic communities, and contemporary conflicts and debates between Sufis, Salafis, and the state across the continent. Students will become familiar with the basic vocabulary and concepts of Islam, as well as various forms of African Islamic artistic traditions and those of African Muslim societies. Students and will become familiar with what these artistic productions mean(t) for the communities that produce(d) them, and what they can tell us about the philosophy, beliefs, history, and socioeconomic and political circumstances in which they are/were produced. This course will feature a number of creative assignments in which students will get a chance to produce their own piece of calligraphy, design their own mosque, and write their own Sufi poem or Sufi commentary on a popular song. These creative projects will be featured in an exhibit at the end of the class.
Same as: AFRICAST 216

AFRICAST 127. African Art and Politics, c. 1900 - Present. 4 Units.

This course explores the relationship between art and politics in twentieth century Africa. Artistic production and consumption is considered in the context of various major political shifts, from the experience of colonialism to the struggle against Apartheid. Each week we will look closely at different works of art and examine how artists and designers responded to such challenges as independence, modernization and globalization. We will look at painting, sculpture, religious art, public and performance art, photography and film. How western perceptions and understanding of African art have shifted, and how museums have framed African art throughout the twentieth century will remain important points of discussion throughout the course.
Same as: ARTHIST 127A

AFRICAST 131. Media and Conflict in Africa. 3-5 Units.

Introduction to the variety of roles played by local and international media in covering conflict situations across the continent in the late 20t- and early 21st-centuries. The objective is to develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of the media as active participants in conflicts, rather than neutral witnesses. How the media in the African context have become tools for propaganda and for encouraging violence, as well as their role in promoting dialogue, peace and reconciliation between communities. These questions are relevant to the context of contemporary Africa where conflicts fueled by ethnic hatred or democratic aspirations have unfolded along with the development of media and communication technologies. Key concepts such as objectivity, impartiality, hate speech, peace journalism, citizen journalism, and cosmopolitanism, to analyze the role played by the media in case studies in Burundi, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. A wide variety of material including: readings drawn from a fields such as media and journalism studies, political sciences, anthropology, and postcolonial theory; linguistic, visual, audio, video and multimedia material produced by news media; and films and documentaries.
Same as: AFRICAST 31

AFRICAST 133B. Covering Islam: On What We Learn to See, Think and Hear about Islam & Muslims. 3-5 Units.

In this course, students will think critically about how knowledge about Islam, Muslims, and Muslim Societies is produced and circulated. As a class, we will consider why and how certain kinds of ideas about Islam and Muslims become representative (i.e., authoritative discourse) while others ideas do not. This is an interdisciplinary class; course material will draw on readings from anthropology, literary criticism, history, sociology and media and cultural studies. We will also be engaging with other kinds of material, including news articles, editorials, documentaries, and films.
Same as: ANTHRO 133B, CSRE 133B

AFRICAST 135. Designing Research-Based Interventions to Solve Global Health Problems. 3-4 Units.

The excitement around social innovation and entrepreneurship has spawned numerous startups focused on tackling world problems, particularly in the fields of education and health. The best social ventures are launched with careful consideration paid to research, design, and efficacy. This course offers students insights into understanding how to effectively develop, evaluate, and scale social ventures. Using TeachAIDS (an award-winning nonprofit educational technology social venture used in 78 countries) as a primary case study, students will be given an in-depth look into how the entity was founded and scaled globally. Guest speakers will include world-class experts and entrepreneurs in Philanthropy, Medicine, Communications, Education, and Technology. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Same as: AFRICAST 235, EDUC 135, EDUC 335, HRP 235, HUMBIO 26, MED 235

AFRICAST 138. Conflict and Reconciliation in Africa: International Intervention. 3-5 Units.

This course will explore recent debates on the causes and structural terms of large-scale violence in Africa in the context of key contemporary models for reconciliation and transitional justice. Discussions will emphasize the broader international legal and political order each presupposes, and specifically whether their underlying reconstitution of rights and subjectivities are compatible with cultural, political or legal diversity. A historical assessment of the predominating Nuremberg paradigm of transitional justice¿structured around international military intervention and criminal trials based on international criminal courts¿will be contrasted with other regional models that engage with the challenges of the political reconciliation of formerly divided political communities. The necessity of understanding the specificities of both global and local historical and structural contexts will be examined with respect to various proposals for how to balance of balance concerns for both justice and peace. Readings will cover case studies from South Africa, Rwanda, DRC, northern Uganda, Sudan (including Darfur and South Sudan), Libya, Mali, and CAR.
Same as: AFRICAST 238, ANTHRO 138A, ANTHRO 238A

AFRICAST 138B. Urban Africa. 5 Units.

This course explores the production of urban space and the social, cultural, and political significance of cities in sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include: architecture and the built environment; urban planning and colonial public health; migration and rural-urban dynamics; youth, politics, and popular culture; violence, policing, and the privatization of public space; (in)formality in housing, transportation, and employment; class, gender, and mobility in the public sphere; urban citizenship and `right to the city¿ movements; gentrification, tourism, and the commodification of poverty; and efforts to (re)theorize postcolonial African cities. Readings are drawn from anthropology, history, urban studies, and geography. Discussion will situate struggles over urban forms and the contours of everyday life within broader trends in the political economy of the region from the late colonial period to the present.
Same as: ANTHRO 138B, URBANST 139

AFRICAST 139A. Forgotten Africa: An Introduction to the Archaeology of Africa. 5 Units.

This course provides an introductory survey of Africa¿s past from prehistoric times through the 19th-century. The course will challenge Western depictions of Africa as a dark continent `without history¿ by highlighting the continent¿s vibrant cultures, sophisticated technologies, complex political systems and participation in far-reaching commercial networks, all predating European colonization. In tandem, the course explores how these histories are mobilized in the production of negative ideas about Africa in contemporary discourse.
Same as: ANTHRO 139A, ARCHLGY 139A

AFRICAST 141A. Science, Technology, and Medicine in Africa. 4 Units.

Africa is often depicted as a place simply in need of science, technology, andnmedicine. This class will introduce students to the culture and politics of science innsub-Saharan Africa: to the diverse and rich traditions, histories and contemporarynpredicaments of knowledge practices on the continent. We will consider the rolenof science in the colonial period, covering the expansion of European empires intonAfrica and the forms of technical knowledge that colonial governments encountered, especially as they relate to health and the environment. We will examine the role of science at African independence and in international development work. Finally, we will discuss the techno-politics of medical training and research, resource extraction, and the internet in contemporary Africa. This course will provide some important background for those with an applied interest in Africa as well as provide an introduction to a growing area of scholarship. Course materials include historical and ethnographic works, as well as primary sources and films emphasizing scientific practice in the context of geopolitical relations of power and inequality.
Same as: ANTHRO 141A

AFRICAST 142. Challenging the Status Quo: Social Entrepreneurs Advancing Democracy, Development and Justice. 3-5 Units.

This seminar is part of a broader program on Social Entrepreneurship at CDDRL in partnership with the Haas Center for Public Service. It will use practice to better inform theory. Working with three visiting social entrepreneurs from developing and developed country contexts students will use case studies of successful and failed social change strategies to explore relationships between social entrepreneurship, gender, democracy, development and justice. It interrogates current definitions of democracy and development and explores how they can become more inclusive of marginalized populations. This is a service learning class in which students will learn by working on projects that support the social entrepreneurs' efforts to promote social change. Students should register for either 3 OR 5 units only. Students enrolled in the full 5 units will have a service-learning component along with the course. Students enrolled for 3 units will not complete the service-learning component. Limited enrollment. Attendance at the first class is mandatory in order to participate in service learning.
Same as: INTNLREL 142

AFRICAST 145B. Africa in Atlantic Writing. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, colonialism, black internationalism, decolonization, immigration and diasporic return. We will begin with Equiano's Interesting Narrative (1789), a touchstone for the Atlantic prose tradition, and study how writers crossing the Atlantic have continued to depict Africa in later centuries: to dramatize scenes of departure and arrival in stories of new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity and examine social fragmentation, to imagine new national communities or question their norms and borders. Our readings will be selected from English, French, Portuguese and Spanish-language traditions. And we will pay close attention to genres of prose fiction (Adichie, Condé, Olinto), prose poetry (Césaire, Neto, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Fanon, Glissant), reportage (Gide, Gourevitch), ethnography (Leiris, Ouologuem) and autobiography (Barack Obama).
Same as: AFRICAAM 148, COMPLIT 145B, COMPLIT 345B, CSRE 145B, FRENCH 145B, FRENCH 345B

AFRICAST 151. AIDS in Africa. 3 Units.

Medical, social, and political aspects of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa including: biology, transmission, diagnosis,and treatment of HIV; mother-to-child transmission and breastfeeding; vaccines; community and activist responses to the HIV epidemic; economics of HIV treatment; governance and health; ethics in research and program implementation.

AFRICAST 181. Media Representations of Africa. 5 Units.

The course explores a range of media (including cinema, advertisement, news, literature, humanitarian communication, TV, digital media) to reflect on different epistemologies that have shaped images of Africa. Essential readings include: Valentin Yves Mudimbe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Achille Mbembe, Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall. Topics include among others: Otherness and race; genealogy of the idea of Africa; colonial culture and media representation; afro-pessimism; diasporic representations; pan-Africanism; Afropolitanism and Afrochic; volontourism and the white-savior industrial complex.

AFRICAST 190. Madagascar Prefield Seminar. 1-2 Unit.

The purpose of this seminar is to prepare students for their overseas field experience in Madagascar. The seminar will provide an introduction to island biogeography and culture, with emphasis on Madagascar. During the seminar, students will give presentations on specific aspects of biogeography and will also lay the groundwork for the presentations they will be giving during the field seminar where access to the internet and to other scholarly resources will be quite limited. In addition, we will cover logistics, health and safety, cultural sensitivity, geography and politics, and basic language skills. We will also deal with post-field issues such as reverse culture shock, and ways in which participants can consolidate and build up their abroad experiences after they return to campus. Students will have the opportunity to participate pilot study aimed at developing a series of innovative online curriculum based upon their field experience.

AFRICAST 195. Back from Africa Workshop. 1-2 Unit.

For students who conducted research over the summer in Africa. Students reflect on their time in Africa, transform their observations and research into scholarship, and connect as a community. Cape Town fellows and any others who conducted summer research in Africa can use this course to finish their research.

AFRICAST 199. Independent Study or Directed Reading. 1-5 Unit.

May be repeated for credit.

AFRICAST 200. The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Tanzania: A Pre-Field Seminar. 1 Unit.

Goal is to prepare students for an HIV/AIDS prevention, service-learning experience in Tanzania. Topics include: history of HIV/AIDS epidemic globally and in Tanzania; social and economic impact of AIDS; national and societal responses; ethical issues in crosscultural service learning; teaching for prevention; biology of HIV transmission, disease progression, and prevention; introduction to Tanzanian history and politics; HIV/AIDS and development; social, cultural, and economic context of HIV risk; and strategies for HIV prevention in Tanzania.

AFRICAST 209. Running While Others Walk: African Perspectives on Development. 5 Units.

Throughout the history of modern Africa, Africans have specified their desired future¿development, understood broadly¿and identified the major obstacles in achieving it. Debates about development have intensified in the post-colonial period, especially as African countries have replaced the leaders installed at independence. Amidst the general critique of the imposition of external values and rules, Africans have differed, sometimes sharply, on priorities, process, and programs. While for some the challenge is to catch up with development elsewhere, for others it is essential to leap ahead, to set the pace, to initiate a radical social, economic, and political transformation. To ground and extend the common approaches to studying development that emphasize economics and that rely largely on external commentators, we will explore African perspectives. Our major task will be a broad overview, sampling the analyses of Africa¿s intellectuals in several domains. Course participants will review, compare, and analyze major contributions, developing an understanding of contemporary intellectual currents.
Same as: AFRICAST 109

AFRICAST 211. Education for All? The Global and Local in Public Policy Making in Africa. 5 Units.

Policy making in Africa and the intersection of policy processes and their political and economic dimensions. The failure to implement agreements by international institutions, national governments, and nongovernmental organizations to promote education. Case studies of crowded and poorly equipped schools, overburdened and underprepared teachers, and underfunded education systems.
Same as: AFRICAST 111

AFRICAST 212. AIDS, Literacy, and Land: Foreign Aid and Development in Africa. 5 Units.

Is foreign aid a solution? or a problem? Should there be more aid, less aid, or none at all? How do foreign aid and local initiatives intersect? A clinic in Uganda that addresses AIDS as a family and community problem. Multiple strategies in Tanzania to increase girls' schooling. These are imaginative and innovative approaches to pressing and contested policy challenges. We will examine several contentious issues in contemporary Africa, exploring their roots and the intense conflicts they engender, with special attention to foreign aid and the aid relationship. As African communities and countries work to shape their future, what are the foreign roles and what are their consequences?.
Same as: AFRICAAM 111, AFRICAST 112

AFRICAST 216. Islam in Africa through the Arts. 5 Units.

This course will survey the history of Islam and Muslim societies in Africa through their arts. Covering three periods (Pre-colonial, Colonial, and Post-colonial), and four geographic regions (North, East, West, and Southern Africa), the course will explore the various forms and functions of Qur anic recitation and calligraphy, architecture, illumination, dress, poetry, music, literature, portraiture, and the contemporary cinematic arts of Muslim societies on the continent from a variety of perspectives (spiritual, intellectual, aesthetic, social, political, etc.). Through these artistic works and traditions we will explore the general themes of philosophy/ theology/ mysticism, trade, Islam s relationship with other religions, state formation and revolution, gender and ethnic dynamics, colonial constructions of religious identity, diasporic communities, and contemporary conflicts and debates between Sufis, Salafis, and the state across the continent. Students will become familiar with the basic vocabulary and concepts of Islam, as well as various forms of African Islamic artistic traditions and those of African Muslim societies. Students and will become familiar with what these artistic productions mean(t) for the communities that produce(d) them, and what they can tell us about the philosophy, beliefs, history, and socioeconomic and political circumstances in which they are/were produced. This course will feature a number of creative assignments in which students will get a chance to produce their own piece of calligraphy, design their own mosque, and write their own Sufi poem or Sufi commentary on a popular song. These creative projects will be featured in an exhibit at the end of the class.
Same as: AFRICAST 116

AFRICAST 224. Memory and Heritage In South Africa Syllabus. 1 Unit.

The focus of this course is to provide a forum in which students examine the role of memory and heritage in South Africa. The course will include visiting speakers, discussion and other activities. The complex relationship between memory and heritage in South Africa will provide the basis for a series of broad conversations about citizenship, national reconciliation, memorialization, justice, modernity and heritage ethics.

AFRICAST 229. Literature and Global Health. 3-5 Units.

This course examines the ways writers in literature and medicine have used the narrative form to explore the ethics of care in what has been called the developing world. We will begin with a call made by the editor-in-chief of The Lancet for a literature of global health, namely fiction modeled on the social reform novels of the nineteenth century, understood to have helped readers develop a conscience for public health as the field emerged as a modern medical specialty. We will then spend the quarter understanding how colonial, postcolonial, and world literatures have answered and complicated this call. Readings will include prose fiction by Albert Camus, Joseph Conrad, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, Amitav Ghosh, Susan Sontag as well as physician memoirs featuring Frantz Fanon, Albert Schweitzer, Abraham Verghese, Paul Farmer. And each literary reading will be paired with medical, philosophical, and policy writings that deeply inform the field of global health.
Same as: AFRICAAM 229, COMPLIT 229, CSRE 129B, FRENCH 229, HUMBIO 175L, MED 234

AFRICAST 235. Designing Research-Based Interventions to Solve Global Health Problems. 3-4 Units.

The excitement around social innovation and entrepreneurship has spawned numerous startups focused on tackling world problems, particularly in the fields of education and health. The best social ventures are launched with careful consideration paid to research, design, and efficacy. This course offers students insights into understanding how to effectively develop, evaluate, and scale social ventures. Using TeachAIDS (an award-winning nonprofit educational technology social venture used in 78 countries) as a primary case study, students will be given an in-depth look into how the entity was founded and scaled globally. Guest speakers will include world-class experts and entrepreneurs in Philanthropy, Medicine, Communications, Education, and Technology. Open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Same as: AFRICAST 135, EDUC 135, EDUC 335, HRP 235, HUMBIO 26, MED 235

AFRICAST 238. Conflict and Reconciliation in Africa: International Intervention. 3-5 Units.

This course will explore recent debates on the causes and structural terms of large-scale violence in Africa in the context of key contemporary models for reconciliation and transitional justice. Discussions will emphasize the broader international legal and political order each presupposes, and specifically whether their underlying reconstitution of rights and subjectivities are compatible with cultural, political or legal diversity. A historical assessment of the predominating Nuremberg paradigm of transitional justice¿structured around international military intervention and criminal trials based on international criminal courts¿will be contrasted with other regional models that engage with the challenges of the political reconciliation of formerly divided political communities. The necessity of understanding the specificities of both global and local historical and structural contexts will be examined with respect to various proposals for how to balance of balance concerns for both justice and peace. Readings will cover case studies from South Africa, Rwanda, DRC, northern Uganda, Sudan (including Darfur and South Sudan), Libya, Mali, and CAR.
Same as: AFRICAST 138, ANTHRO 138A, ANTHRO 238A

AFRICAST 299. Independent Study or Directed Reading. 1-10 Unit.

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AFRICAST 300. Contemporary Issues in African Studies. 1 Unit.

Guest scholars present analyses of major African themes and topics. Brief response papers required. May be repeated for credit.

AFRICAST 301A. The Dynamics of Change in Africa. 4-5 Units.

Crossdisciplinary colloquium; required for the M.A. degree in African Studies. Open to advanced undergraduates and PhD students. Addresses critical issues including patterns of economic collapse and recovery; political change and democratization; and political violence, civil war, and genocide. Focus on cross-cutting issues including the impact of colonialism; the role of religion, ethnicity, and inequality; and Africa's engagement with globalization.
Same as: HISTORY 246, HISTORY 346, POLISCI 246P, POLISCI 346P

AFRICAST 302. Research Workshop. 1 Unit.

Required for African Studies master's students. Student presentations.