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 81. Media Representations of Africa. 3-5 Units.

How has Africa been dominantly represented in the media? How are these representations challenged, complexified and reproduced in the postcolonial context? What is the role of African media in these processes? This class is an introduction to the variety of roles played by the media in representing Africa, with a particular focus on the postcolonial context. The topic is particularly relevant to contemporary Africa as the emerging middle-class, economic and cultural globalization, and the uptake for communication technologies are shaping contested images of the continent. You will: develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of the media as instruments of domination but also of resistance; learn how to critically deconstruct media representations in everyday life; understand the challenges of intercultural communication in an unequal world. Key concepts such as: representation, stereotyping, cultural appropriation, afropessimism, afrocentrism, afro optimism, afropolitanism. Readings drawn from media and cultural studies, anthropology, postcolonial theory and literature. In class-analysis of photographs, news articles and broadcasts, PR campaigns, social media, films and documentaries.
Same as: AFRICAAM 81, AFRICAST 181

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 119. Novel Perspectives on South Africa. 2-3 Units.

21st-century South Africa continues its literary effervescence. In this class we¿ll sample some recent novels and related writings to tease out the issues shaping the country (and to some degree the continent) at present. Is `South African literature¿ a meaningful category today? What are the most significant features we can identify in new writings and how do they relate to contemporary social dynamics? The course will appeal to anyone interested in present-day Cape Town or Johannesburg, including students who have spent a term in BOSP-Cape Town or plan to do so in future. Both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. 2-3 units. Course may be repeated for credit.n nAll students will write short analyses from the prescribed texts. Students taking the course for three units will write an extended essay on a topic agreed with the instructor.
Same as: AFRICAAM 119, AFRICAAM 219, AFRICAST 219, CSRE 119

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 132. Literature and Society in Africa and the Caribbean. 4 Units.

This course aims to equip students with an understanding of the cultural, political and literary aspects at play in the literatures of Francophone Africa and the Caribbean. Our primary readings will be Francophone novels and poetry, though we will also read some theoretical texts, as well as excerpts of Francophone theater. The assigned readings will expose students to literature from diverse French-speaking regions of the African/Caribbean world. This course will also serve as a "literary toolbox," with the intention of facilitating an understanding of literary forms, terms and practices. Students can expect to work on their production of written and spoken French (in addition to reading comprehension) both in and outside of class. Required readings include: Aimé Césaire, "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal," Albert Memmi, "La Statue de Sel," Kaouther Adimi, "L'envers des autres", Maryse Condé, "La Vie sans fards". Movies include "Goodbye Morocco", "Aya de Yopougon", "Rome plutôt sue Vous". Taught in French. Prerequisite: FRENLANG 124 or consent of instructor.
Same as: AFRICAAM 133, FRENCH 133, JEWISHST 143

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 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: AFRICAST 242, INTNLREL 142

AFRICAST 145B. The African Atlantic. 3-5 Units.

This course explores the central place Africa holds in prose writing emerging during early and modern periods of globalization across the Atlantic, including the middle passage, exploration and 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 self-making or new citizenship, to evoke histories of racial unity or examine psychic and 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 (Conrad, Condé, Olinto), epic and prose poetry (Césaire, Walcott), theoretical reflection (Gilroy, Glissant, Mudimbe, Benitez-Rojo), and literary autobiography (Barack Obama, Saidiya Hartman). Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take COMPLIT 145B for a minimum of 3 Units and a Letter Grade.
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. 3-5 Units.

How has Africa been dominantly represented in the media? How are these representations challenged, complexified and reproduced in the postcolonial context? What is the role of African media in these processes? This class is an introduction to the variety of roles played by the media in representing Africa, with a particular focus on the postcolonial context. The topic is particularly relevant to contemporary Africa as the emerging middle-class, economic and cultural globalization, and the uptake for communication technologies are shaping contested images of the continent. You will: develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of the media as instruments of domination but also of resistance; learn how to critically deconstruct media representations in everyday life; understand the challenges of intercultural communication in an unequal world. Key concepts such as: representation, stereotyping, cultural appropriation, afropessimism, afrocentrism, afro optimism, afropolitanism. Readings drawn from media and cultural studies, anthropology, postcolonial theory and literature. In class-analysis of photographs, news articles and broadcasts, PR campaigns, social media, films and documentaries.
Same as: AFRICAAM 81, AFRICAST 81

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 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 219. Novel Perspectives on South Africa. 2-3 Units.

21st-century South Africa continues its literary effervescence. In this class we¿ll sample some recent novels and related writings to tease out the issues shaping the country (and to some degree the continent) at present. Is `South African literature¿ a meaningful category today? What are the most significant features we can identify in new writings and how do they relate to contemporary social dynamics? The course will appeal to anyone interested in present-day Cape Town or Johannesburg, including students who have spent a term in BOSP-Cape Town or plan to do so in future. Both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. 2-3 units. Course may be repeated for credit.n nAll students will write short analyses from the prescribed texts. Students taking the course for three units will write an extended essay on a topic agreed with the instructor.
Same as: AFRICAAM 119, AFRICAAM 219, AFRICAST 119, CSRE 119

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. Note: To be eligible for WAYS credit, you must take the course for a Letter Grade.
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 242. 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: AFRICAST 142, INTNLREL 142

AFRICAST 246L. Studies in Ethnomusicology: Musics of Africa and the African Diaspora. 3-5 Units.

An introduction to musics of Africa and the African Diaspora. Topics include: music and nationalism, religion, embodiment, diaspora, migration, resistance, gender, globalization, and race. Musical regions and nations may include: Zimbabwe, South Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Caribbean, and the United States. This is a seminar-based course in which students will write short reflective papers and a final, research-based paper.Pre- or co-requisite for WIM credit: MUSIC 22. WIM at 4 or 5 letter-graded units only.
Same as: AFRICAAM 146L, MUSIC 146L, MUSIC 246L

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

.

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.

AFRICAST 801. TGR Project. 0 Units.

.