History of the United States in Africa (HIST 492)



History of the United States in Africa (HIST 492)

Spring, 2007 Prof. Stephen Volz

Fri. 1:10-4:00 Seitz House, office 6, x5836

Sam Mather 308 office hours: T & R 1:30-3:30, W 3:00-5:00

HIST49200s07@kenyon.edu volzs@kenyon.edu

description

This seminar will examine various ways that people, culture and institutions from the U.S. have influenced Africa during the past two centuries and how Africans have responded to that involvement. Although much interaction has been at the official level of governments and corporations, we will focus primarily on examples of U.S. influence at the local, personal and social level within Africa. Among the cases to be considered will be several involving African Americans, such as the founding of Liberia, the missionary movement in the nineteenth century and Pan-Africanism in the twentieth century. Other topics will include the Cold War and recent U.S. political and economic involvement in Africa.

requirements

The grade for the class will be determined by the number of points earned out of a possible total of 300, apportioned as follows: discussion questions (50 points – 5 points each), four medium-sized papers (50 points each), a map quiz (10) and participation in class discussion (40). Students are expected to participate actively and intelligently in discussion, thoughtfully considering the different viewpoints of the authors, the instructor and one another. In order to participate, students will, of course, need to be present, and unexcused absences will result in a lowered participation grade. Each student will be allowed one “free” absence, but any absence after that will result in the loss of 8 points from the participation grade.

The final letter grade will be determined by the percent of points earned out of the total of 300, according to the following scale:

97-100% A+ 87-89% B+ 77-79% C+ 65-69% D

93-96% A 83-86% B 73-76% C < 65% F

90-92% A- 80-82% B- 70-72% C-

disability guidelines

If you have a disability for which you might need some accommodation in order to participate fully in the course, please see the instructor and inform Ms. Erin Salva, the Coordinator of Disability Services, at salvae@kenyon.edu and x5453.

readings

The readings listed for each day should be read in preparation for that day’s class. The texts for the course are mostly books describing various aspects of U.S.-African relations during the past two centuries. They are available for purchase in the Kenyon bookstore:

Peter Duignan, The United States and Africa: A History (New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1984)

Claude Clegg, The Price of Liberty: African Americans and the Making of Liberia

(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004)

Pagan Kennedy, Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century

Congo (New York: Penguin Books, 2002)

Yekutiel Gershoni, Africans on African-Americans: The Creation and Uses of an

African-American Myth (New York: New York University Press, 1997)

F. Ugboaja Ohaegbulam, U.S. Policy in Postcolonial Africa: Four Case Studies in

Conflict Resolution (New York: Peter Lang, 2004)

Other readings are articles and excerpts from various books, most of which are available as PDF files in electronic reserve (E-Res), designated by [R] in the schedule and located through the LBIS website at . The password to access the E-Res materials is marekani (the Kiswahili word for “America”). A few of the readings are not on reserve but are journal articles that can be found through the LBIS website at Academic Search Premier [A] or J-Stor [J].

supplementary resources

There are several books in the reference section of the library that provide additional information on the people and recent history of Africa. These include:

Africana: Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (DT14 A37435)

Encyclopedia of African Peoples (DT15 E53)

An African Biographical Dictionary (DT18 B76)

Encyclopedia of African History (DT 20 E53)

Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History (DT29 E53)

Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (DT351 E53)

New Atlas of African History (G2446.S1 F73)

For more detailed information and analysis, students are invited to consult the works listed in the bibliographies of the readings, explore the “DT” section of the library bookshelves and browse the various “African Studies” journals in J-Stor.

The internet has many websites dealing with Africa, but universities often have the best ones, such as the extensive lists of links compiled at and . For current events in Africa, see reports by BBC News at and read recent articles from African newspapers at .

assignments

discussion questions (5 pts each)

For those ten class meetings when there is no other written assignment due, students will be expected to compose three questions that will serve as the basis for discussing the readings for that day. They should be e-mailed to Prof. Volz sometime on the Thursday night before the class. If a student has an excused absence, then the questions should be submitted by the following week in order to receive credit.

map quiz (10 pts)

In class on Feb. 3, there will be a quiz on the geography of Africa in which students will locate countries and major climate regions on an outline map of the continent. A practice map will be handed out in the second week of class, and a practice quiz for locating the countries of Africa is available at: .

paper on early colonial era (50 pts)

Students will be required to write a paper in response to Black Livingstone and other readings regarding the activities of U.S. missionaries, explorers and traders in Africa during the late nineteenth century, discussing the relationship between individual and group interests and the way that Kennedy portrays the experiences of William Sheppard in the Congo. More detailed instructions will be handed out in early February. 6-8 pages, due at Prof. Volz’s office by Monday Feb. 20 at 5:00 p.m.

paper on Pan-Africanism (50 pts)

Students will be required to write a paper discussing the role of African-Americans in the development of Pan-Africanism within Africa, comparing Yekutiel Gershoni’s Africans on African-Americans with the views of other scholars. More detailed instructions will be handed out in late February. 6-8 pages, due in class on Friday March 23.

paper on U.S. involvement in Africa since 1945 (50 pts)

Students will be required to write a short research paper on a topic of their choosing related to U.S. involvement in Africa between the time of World War Two and the present. The main sources for the paper should be either one major book (and its reviews) or several significant scholarly articles related to the topic. More detailed instructions will be handed out in late March. 6-8 pages, due at Prof. Volz’s office by Monday April 23 at 5:00 p.m.

final paper (50 pts)

Students will be required to write a final paper on a major question or theme raised

during the semester, drawing on multiple readings and historical examples. More detailed instructions will be handed out in late April. 6-8 pages, due at Prof. Volz’s office by Friday May 11 at 3:00 p.m..

writing guidelines

construction of arguments

Ideas and information in written assignments should be presented in a well-organized and coherent fashion. Clearly-stated thesis statements should be followed by specific evidence and examples that support them, grouped in a separate paragraph for each main idea or topic. Historical understanding derives from multiple forms of evidence, motives and other factors, and analysis of historical events should reflect some awareness of that complexity and ascribed order. If there are multiple perspectives on an issue or event, then they should be described and evaluated, and one should explain the reasons for choosing one view over another.

choice of words

In writing about history and different cultures, one should avoid using terminology that tends to dehumanize and denigrate past or foreign peoples. Most problematic are terms such as “primitive”, “native” and “tribal”, which are vestiges of colonialism and have come to connote inferiority, strangeness and unchanging simplicity. Such terms might have some usefulness, but the meanings that they carry generally bear little resemblance to the complex reality of people and events in African history.

Word choices are not merely a matter of “political correctness” but of accuracy and consistency. Mount Vernon residents in their daily lives are generally not referred to as “natives” performing “traditional rituals”, and neither should Africans be described as such. One cannot begin to understand African history without first regarding the people of Africa as equally human, with all the variation and agency that that entails, and deserving of the same respect and attention given to one’s own culture.

format for papers

The four papers should be typed, double-spaced and stapled. No title page is necessary, but the student’s name, class, professor’s name, paper title and date should be printed at the top of the first page. Footnotes should be used in the papers when a quote is made from a source or when a notable idea or significant piece of information is attributed to a certain source. However, any information and ideas that are generally accepted or widely known do not require citation. If the source of a quote or idea is one of the assigned texts for the class, then only the author and page number need to be cited. For other sources that are cited, include the full bibliographic information in the footnote.

writing assistance

Kenyon Writing Center, Olin Library room 307 –

Kenyon Online Writing Lab –

schedule of topics, readings and assignments

1/20 introduction

The Battle of Tripoli (DVD 06.0560)

1/27 decline of trans-Atlantic slave trade

Duignan & Gann, United States and Africa, 1-50

Clegg, Price of Liberty, 1-52

2/3 the founding of Liberia

Clegg, Price of Liberty, 77-162, 179-188, 201-248

{ map quiz in class }

2/10 explorers, missionaries and traders

Duignan & Gann, United States and Africa, 51-173

Dennis Hickey and Kenneth Wylie, “Of naked apes and noble savages” in An Enchanting

Darkness (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1993) 7-27 [R]

Chinua Achebe, “An image of Africa: racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” in

R. Kinbrough (ed.), Heart of Darkness (New York: W.W. Norton, 1988) 251-262 [R]

2/17 the case of the Congo

Kennedy, Black Livingstone

{ paper on early colonial era due by Monday 2/20 at 5:00 p.m. }

2/24 colonial Africa and U.S. interests

Duignan & Gann, United States and Africa, 176-250

3/2 the rise of Pan-Africanism

Duignan & Gann, United States and Africa, 251-278

Gershoni, Africans on African-Americans, 1-111

3/9, 3/16 SPRING BREAK (no classes)

3/23 development of African nationalism

Gershoni, Africans on African-Americans, 112-181

Toyin Falola, “‘Seek ye the political kingdom’: nationalism and nation-building” in

Nationalism and African Intellectuals (Rochester: University of Rochester Press,

2001) 97-142 [R]

{ paper on Pan-Africanism due in class }

3/30 “black consciousness” and “black power”

George Fredrickson, “Black Power in the United States and Black Consciousness in

South Africa: connections and comparisons” in Comparative Perspectives on

South Africa (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998) 185-216 [R]

Steve Biko, “The definition of black consciousness” in I Write What I Like (San

Francisco: Harper & Row, 1978) 48-53 [R]

Clement Tsehloane Keto, “Black American involvement in South Africa’s race issue”

Issue: A Journal of Opinion 3, 1 (1973) 6-11 [J]

excerpt in class from In Darkest Hollywood (video 06.0063)

film: When We Were Kings (video 00.0173) shown evening of Sunday 4/1

4/6 post-WWII politics in Central Africa

Duignan & Gann, United States and Africa, 284-296

Ohaegbulam, U.S. Policy, 1-82, 147-227

excerpt in class from Lumumba: La Mort du Prophete (video 93.0456)

4/13 post-WWII politics in the Horn of Africa

Ohaegbulam, U.S. Policy, 82-111, 253-265

Princeton Lyman & J. Stephen Morrison, “The terrorist threat in Africa” Foreign Affairs

83, 1 (2004) 75-86 [A] [additional reading still to be determined]

4/20 development aid

Duignan & Gann, United States and Africa, 300-324, 354-358

Fantu Cheru, “Africa and the globalization challenge” in African Renaissance (London:

Zed Books, 2002) 1-32 [R]

Brian Hesse, “Celebrate or hold suspect? Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in Africa”

Journal of Contemporary African Studies 23, 3 (2005) 327-344 [A]

{ paper on U.S. in Africa after 1945 due by Monday 4/23 at 5:00 p.m. }

4/27 oil boom in West Africa

J. Anyu Ndumbe, “West African oil, U.S. energy policy, and Africa’s development

strategies” Mediterranean Quarterly 15, 1 (2004) 93-104 [A]

Michael Klare and Daniel Volman, “The African ‘oil rush’ and U.S. national security”

Third World Quarterly 27, 4 (2006) 609-628 [R]

5/4 Pentecostal churches

Allan Anderson and Gerald Pillay, “The segregated spirit: the Pentecostals” in R. Elphick

and R. Davenport (eds.), Christianity in South Africa (Berkeley: University of

California Press, 1997) 227-241 [R]

Pierre-Joseph Laurent, “Transnationalisation and local transformations: the example of

the Church of Assemblies of God of Burkina Faso” in Between Babel and

Pentecost (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001) 256-273 [R]

{ final paper due by Friday 5/11 at 3:00 p.m. }

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