Essential Questions
Course Overview “The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist.” ― Ryszard Kapuściński, The Cobra's Heart |
“The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist.” ― Ryszard Kapuściński, The Cobra's Heart
This course aims to deconstruct stereotypical notions of “Africa” as we zoom in on the legacy of imperialism and humanitarian aid in Sub-Saharan Africa. We will begin, however, in the present moment, as we understand why the current racial justice revolution and Black Lives Matter protests call for decolonization. We will inevitably have to dig into concepts of race and identity, as we explore the origins of race as a social construct, and the impact on our own identities.
We will then go back in time to study European Imperialism of Africa during the late 1800’s through early 1900’s with a particular focus on the Congo, Kenya, and Ghana. The Congo, frequently referred to as “the heart of Africa”, has been the battleground for various European and African nations’ quest for economic prosperity and political power promised by its wealth of natural resources, beginning with Belgian’s merciless and brutal King Leopold II, whose “acquisition” of the Congo and horrific treatment of Congolese people lasted from 1885 through 1908.
We will then move on to examine anti-imperialism rhetoric and independence efforts by Congolese and Kenyan leaders in the 1960’s to better understand the perspectives of Sub-Saharan Africans and their efforts to reclaim their peoples and lands in the face of European conquest and control.
Next, we’ll study neocolonialism and the legacy of imperialism in modern times to better understand the consequences (both positive and negative) of European Imperialism. One result of imperialism is foreign aid, a double-edged sword of sorts in that ii has been both a blessing and a curse to Sub-Saharan Africa. On this note, we will turn our attention to our second essential question:”What is the ‘story’ of Africa? What stories are missing from the dominant discourse?”. In this unit, we will seek to challenge the single story so often told about Africa, which Binyavanga Wainaina captures in his ironic essay entitled, “How to Write about Africa” as he prescribes: "In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular."
One way we will seek to combat these stereotypes Wainaina describes will be by reading texts by modern African authors who are writing about Africa in a multitude of ways. We will read Homegoing by Ghanian-American author, Yaa Gyasi, which follows the parallel paths of two half-sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Students will learn how to write a literary analysis essay as they develop their own response to Homegoing.
Lastly, we will work to develop our own response to the 3rd of this course’s essential questions: Is foreign aid justified and if so, what are ineffective and effective approaches to foreign aid? To do so, we’ll study various foreign aid approaches and critique the ethics and efficacy of those approaches to develop our own framework. Our final project will be a collaborative effort, both in design and execution but should give students the opportunity to critically think about their own role in making positive social change, as well as the efforts of other nations, institutions and non-profit organizations in doing the same. This may involve a critical analysis of a non-profit working to address an aspect of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, or it may involve working directly with such an organization to assist them with a project.
Class Schedule
Because this is an advanced course that covers a lot of material, we will be meeting 2x a week. We’ll meet on Wednesday mornings during 2nd period. However, we’ll discuss as a group the best time for our 2nd online class based on our schedules. As of now, I’m leaning toward Tuesday at 1pm.
Class Tech Resources
This course is modeled after a college-level seminar, which means that you, the students, do most of the talking as class time will be primarily discussion-based with some lecture from yours truly. Thus, you should expect all reading and other homework to take place outside of class. We will not have very much time together due to this whacky pandemic we’re living through, so it is critical that we make the most out of class time. Thus, in order for this course to be successful, you need to come to class having completed the readings and ready to engage in critical discourse. Late work will not be accepted. Period. That said, this class will simulate a college-level seminar course in its approach to grading. Rather than You will only be graded on the following five assessments:
The 1 Extension Rule
I will allow ONE extension this semester. You must email me no later than 6 pm the night before the deadline and provide a compelling reason for your request. Please anticipate absences due to family travel, extracurricular events, and plan accordingly by doing work ahead of time and thus avoid extension requests for those matters.
Expectations
As this is an advanced elective, I assume that all students signed up are prepared for a robust work load and are eager for the challenge. I am confident you can all rise to, and exceed, the expectations of this course, but if you are ever struggling with the amount of reading or pace of the course, PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out to me. I am both very open to feedback and extremely dedicated to your success in my class. I want to make sure this class is challenging, engaging and manageable. That said, I do have the following goals for you all to encourage active engagement with the class material and your own growth and development as a critical thinker, and thoughtful humanitarian.
Communicate Competently
Curriculum Calendar at a Glance and Subject to Change
September
This course aims to deconstruct stereotypical notions of “Africa” as we zoom in on the legacy of imperialism and humanitarian aid in Sub-Saharan Africa. We will begin, however, in the present moment, as we understand why the current racial justice revolution and Black Lives Matter protests call for decolonization. We will inevitably have to dig into concepts of race and identity, as we explore the origins of race as a social construct, and the impact on our own identities.
We will then go back in time to study European Imperialism of Africa during the late 1800’s through early 1900’s with a particular focus on the Congo, Kenya, and Ghana. The Congo, frequently referred to as “the heart of Africa”, has been the battleground for various European and African nations’ quest for economic prosperity and political power promised by its wealth of natural resources, beginning with Belgian’s merciless and brutal King Leopold II, whose “acquisition” of the Congo and horrific treatment of Congolese people lasted from 1885 through 1908.
We will then move on to examine anti-imperialism rhetoric and independence efforts by Congolese and Kenyan leaders in the 1960’s to better understand the perspectives of Sub-Saharan Africans and their efforts to reclaim their peoples and lands in the face of European conquest and control.
Next, we’ll study neocolonialism and the legacy of imperialism in modern times to better understand the consequences (both positive and negative) of European Imperialism. One result of imperialism is foreign aid, a double-edged sword of sorts in that ii has been both a blessing and a curse to Sub-Saharan Africa. On this note, we will turn our attention to our second essential question:”What is the ‘story’ of Africa? What stories are missing from the dominant discourse?”. In this unit, we will seek to challenge the single story so often told about Africa, which Binyavanga Wainaina captures in his ironic essay entitled, “How to Write about Africa” as he prescribes: "In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular."
One way we will seek to combat these stereotypes Wainaina describes will be by reading texts by modern African authors who are writing about Africa in a multitude of ways. We will read Homegoing by Ghanian-American author, Yaa Gyasi, which follows the parallel paths of two half-sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Students will learn how to write a literary analysis essay as they develop their own response to Homegoing.
Lastly, we will work to develop our own response to the 3rd of this course’s essential questions: Is foreign aid justified and if so, what are ineffective and effective approaches to foreign aid? To do so, we’ll study various foreign aid approaches and critique the ethics and efficacy of those approaches to develop our own framework. Our final project will be a collaborative effort, both in design and execution but should give students the opportunity to critically think about their own role in making positive social change, as well as the efforts of other nations, institutions and non-profit organizations in doing the same. This may involve a critical analysis of a non-profit working to address an aspect of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, or it may involve working directly with such an organization to assist them with a project.
Class Schedule
Because this is an advanced course that covers a lot of material, we will be meeting 2x a week. We’ll meet on Wednesday mornings during 2nd period. However, we’ll discuss as a group the best time for our 2nd online class based on our schedules. As of now, I’m leaning toward Tuesday at 1pm.
Class Tech Resources
- I’ll post daily agendas for our online class meetings on my DP: http://ifasa.weebly.com/
- I’ll post all assignments in Google Classroom (to join, check your emails for the invitation)
- The stream function will be reserved for class discussions
- This is the link to our Zoom meetings for online class. It will always be the same link. If you are meeting with me to conference 1-on-1, please use the same week for our scheduled time.
This course is modeled after a college-level seminar, which means that you, the students, do most of the talking as class time will be primarily discussion-based with some lecture from yours truly. Thus, you should expect all reading and other homework to take place outside of class. We will not have very much time together due to this whacky pandemic we’re living through, so it is critical that we make the most out of class time. Thus, in order for this course to be successful, you need to come to class having completed the readings and ready to engage in critical discourse. Late work will not be accepted. Period. That said, this class will simulate a college-level seminar course in its approach to grading. Rather than You will only be graded on the following five assessments:
- Class Participation (10%): Because we only meet twice a week, online, it is crucial that you attend these meetings and that you actively participate. You will be getting points each week based on your active participation.
- Weekly Reading Responses (10%): Weekly responses to readings (reflections, online discussions and quizzes)
- Homegoing Literary Analysis Essay (40%): An essay analyzing a novel we’ll read midway through the semester
- Final Project (40%): Our final project will have you synthesize various approaches to foreign aid and apply the knowledge you’ve acquired over the course of the semester to a critical analysis of one organization’s approach to addressing poverty or inequality. You will get to choose the organization.
The 1 Extension Rule
I will allow ONE extension this semester. You must email me no later than 6 pm the night before the deadline and provide a compelling reason for your request. Please anticipate absences due to family travel, extracurricular events, and plan accordingly by doing work ahead of time and thus avoid extension requests for those matters.
Expectations
As this is an advanced elective, I assume that all students signed up are prepared for a robust work load and are eager for the challenge. I am confident you can all rise to, and exceed, the expectations of this course, but if you are ever struggling with the amount of reading or pace of the course, PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out to me. I am both very open to feedback and extremely dedicated to your success in my class. I want to make sure this class is challenging, engaging and manageable. That said, I do have the following goals for you all to encourage active engagement with the class material and your own growth and development as a critical thinker, and thoughtful humanitarian.
Communicate Competently
- Write Consciously: Be authentic in your beliefs, logical in your reasoning, and intentional about how you organize your ideas.
- Speak Clearly: Take your time to gather your thoughts, mean what you say, state your main points and provide specific examples to back them up.
- Read and Think Critically: Question everything. Identity bias and rhetorical appeals. Develop reasoned judgments that are logical and well-thought out.
- Listen Compassionately
- Listen Patiently:
- Don’t raise your hand while someone else is speaking
- The speaker should never be interrupted
- Listen Actively:
- Each idea can inspire, inform, and refine another. Thus, ideas should be built upon. To do this, we must engage meaningfully with each other’s ideas and thus listen actively.
- Police your voice (Step up, Step Back)
- Make it easier on your classmates to patiently and actively listen to you by being mindful of how much space you are taking up in a conversation, and aim to speak clearly and concisely.
- You’ll need to really grapple with the theories and content we study this semester and show that you are capable of identifying your own biases and assumptions, as well as those of others.
- You’ll need to identify ways in which you find yourself not engage as fully as possible and work on stretching yourself. Engagement takes different forms and I understand that students have different personalities; some are extroverted, some are introverted. For some, class discussions are hard to engage in, but perhaps for those students, that’s an area of growth. For some, active listening is hard as they really like to verbally process. Perhaps showing engagement through active listening is a goal for those students!
Curriculum Calendar at a Glance and Subject to Change
September
- A Brief History of Africa Before Colonialism
- What is Colonial Mentality?
- BLM and Decolonization TODAY
- Introduction to Course Themes
- Imperialism 1881-1914
- Postcolonialism and Independence 1960’s
- Legacy of Imperialism + Neocolonialism (Present Day)
- Challenging the Single Story (Through a study of literature and other contemporary resources we will try to challenge the dangers of a single story too often perpetuated by charity propaganda schemes)
- Foreign Aid (We will critically examine foreign aid today through various aid efforts from the Lwala Community Alliance and GiveDirectly to the UN Millenium Project and Unicef)
- Project Ideation and development (To be determined in collaboration between Ashley and students)
- In the past, students have chosen one non-profit organization working to address an issue related to poverty and evaluated that organization’s approach by applying the various theories and concepts we study over the course of the semester. We may go with this project again, but I also like to leave the door open for our own original ideas and inspirations to emerge.