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Rutgers University Professor A Rutgers University Professor A. Haugerud Course Number: 070:338 [email protected] Spring 2008 (T 2:15-5:15) Office telephone/voice mail: 932-2643 Office: RAB 304 ANTHROPOLOGY OF AFRICA Course Description Kenya's post-election violence captured media headlines in early 2008. Why, journalists wondered, did an apparently peaceful country with a promising economy suddenly seem to fly apart? How are we to understand calamities such as the 1994 genocide portrayed in the popular film Hotel Rwanda? What stories of hope emerge from that tragedy? Recent years have seen a surge of interest in Africa, which is now a popular destination for celebrities, tourists, entrepreneurs, and students. Many have taken prominent public stands on issues such as genocide, disease, and famine. What vital additional dimensions of Africa become visible if we look past the media headlines and latest celebrity visits? This course explores both popular and scholarly understandings of Africa. Topics addressed include contemporary rural and urban experiences, Africa as discursive and imaginative object, popular culture, ethnicity, gender relations, globalization, violence, modernity, spirituality, political ecology, conservation, tourism, social change, development, foreign intervention, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Readings are drawn from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, history, literature, political science, and geography. In addition, we will examine African and other media representations of the continent. The format of class meetings will include lectures, group discussions, films, music, and slides. Course Objectives To provide students with concrete knowledge about life in Africa today and in the past. To introduce students to fundamental concepts and debates in the anthropology of Africa. To help students develop critical analytical skills for interpreting contemporary and historical events in Africa as portrayed in both mass media and scholarship. Requirements include regular attendance, active participation in class discussions (which requires completing assigned readings on time), a map quiz (week 3), two in-class examinations (weeks 6 & 11), and a short paper (about 8 pages/2,000 words) on assigned readings (due Wednesday, May 7th). Make-up exams will not be allowed except in emergencies, which must be documented by your Dean. If you miss an exam you must notify the instructor of the reason no more than 24 hours later. (Such notification should be by both phone/voice mail and email.) **Travel plans are not an acceptable reason for missing an exam.** Occasional pop quizzes will be given during the first 10 minutes of class. (These quizzes cannot be made up and cannot be taken by those who arrive late to class. The lowest quiz grade during the semester will be dropped.) 1 Grades will be determined as follows: Attendance, participation, pop quizzes = 15% Map quiz = 10% Two in-class examinations = 25% each Final essay = 25%. Any late work will be penalized except under extraordinary circumstances, which must be documented by your Dean. Late papers will be marked down ½ grade per day of delay (for example, a B+ paper that is two days late will be a C+ ; a B+ paper that is one day late will be a B). Plagiarism will not be tolerated; any paper that includes plagiarized material will receive a grade of zero and the student will be reported to the appropriate university authorities. Attendance: Since the class meets just once each week, students are expected to attend all classes. Absences are costly (in terms of grade points and quantity of required course material missed). Classroom atmosphere: We are all responsible for creating a friendly, relaxed, and productive classroom atmosphere. That requires listening respectfully to everyone, phrasing comments constructively and politely, turning off cell phones and other electronic devices, coming to class on time, and refraining from reading the newspaper or working on other assignments during class. *How well you practice these common courtesies will be reflected in the class attendance and participation portion of your grade.* Communication: All students are responsible for timely attention to email and Sakai postings for this course and therefore should check the Sakai site and their Rutgers "eden" email accounts regularly. To access Sakai go to https://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal; log in with your Rutgers userid and password; and use the course membership tool to access class materials. Ethics/Academic Integrity: Be careful to avoid plagiarism. You are responsible for knowing what plagiarism is. A clear explanation, with examples of different types of plagiarism, is available on the website of Georgetown University's Honor Council: http://gervaseprograms.georgetown.edu/hc/plagiarism.html ******* Required texts (available for purchase at Douglass Co-op Bookstore): Paul Rusesabagina, 2006, An Ordinary Man: An Autobiography. Viking Press. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 1964, Weep Not, Child. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Chinua Achebe, 1966, A Man of the People. New York: Doubleday. Other required readings are on electronic reserve in the Rutgers library. How to access e-reserve readings: Go to Rutgers home page and click on LIBRARIES; click on FIND RESERVES; click on RESERVES; enter either instructor's name or course number or course title and click on appropriate box. You will find a list of articles assigned for this course. Click on DETAILS and then click on ELECTRONIC ACCESS for a copy of the assigned article, which you can either read online or download. ******* ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: see last pages of syllabus. 2 ***** SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND READINGS Week 1/Jan. 22 INTRODUCTION Week 2/ Jan. 29 STARTING POINTS: CULTURE, GEOGRAPHY, LANGUAGE -Laura Bohannan, 1982[1966], "Shakespeare in the Bush," pp. 72-88, in Anthropology for the Eighties, Johnetta B. Cole (ed). New York: The Free Press. [originally published in Natural History 75(7):28- 33] -Michael McNulty, 1995, "The Contemporary Map of Africa," pp. 3-45, in Africa, Phyllis Martin and Patrick O'Meara, eds. Indiana University Press. -Roy R. Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner, eds., 1997, Introduction: Africa in Perspective," pp. xvii- xxxi, in Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation. Oxford: Blackwell. -James Ferguson, 2006, "Introduction: Global Shadows: Africa and the World," pp. 1-24, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham and London: Duke University Press. **MAPS of Africa: http://www.africa.upenn.edu//Home_Page/africaMap.html http://www.nationsonline.org/maps/africa_small_map.jpg http://www.library.northwestern.edu/africana/map/africa2.gif http://www.printablemapstore.com/images/big/map_of_continents/maps_of_africa/political_map_of_ africa.jpg http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/map.html Blank map of Africa, with national boundaries: http://www.mapsofworld.com/images/maps_of_world_africa_outline.gif Week 3/Feb. 5 THE ILLUSION OF "TRADITIONAL" AFRICA -Ivan Karp, 1995, "African Systems of Thought," pp. 211-222, in Africa, Phyllis Martin and Patrick O'Meara, eds. Indiana University Press. -David Livingstone, 1997, "Conversations on Rainmaking," pp. 299-302, in Roy R. Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner, eds., Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation. Oxford: Blackwell. -Parker Shipton, 2007, "Luo and Their Livelihood," pp. 40-80, in The Nature of Entrustment: Intimacy, Exchange, and the Sacred in Africa. Yale University Press. -Roy R. Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner, 1997, "Europe in Africa: Colonization," pp. 568-573. In Roy R. Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner, eds., Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation. Oxford: Blackwell. -Frederick Cooper, 2002, "Introduction: from colonies to Third World," pp. 1-19, Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present. Cambridge University Press. **MAP QUIZ** Film: "This Magnificent African Cake" (Basil Davidson) 3 Week 4/Feb. 12 COLONIAL KENYA: "MAU MAU"—Part I -Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 1964, Weep Not, Child, pp. 1-64 (chapters 1-7 and "Interlude") -Jomo Kenyatta, 1965, Facing Mt. Kenya, excerpts. Film: "Mau Mau" and excerpt from "White Man's Country" Background on Kenya (browse): http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Country_Specific/Kenya.html Kenya news media sources (see list under week 13) East African Music (not required): -Gregory Barz, 2004, Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford University Press. Other sources on "Mau Mau" (not required) -David Anderson, 2005, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire. Norton. -Caroline Elkins, 2005, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of the End of Empire in Kenya. [published in Britain as Britain's Gulag.] Jonathan Cape. -E. S. Atieno Odhiambo and John Lonsdale, editors. Mau Mau and Nationhood: Arms, Authority and Narration. (Eastern African Studies.) London: James Currey; Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers; Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. -Tabitha Kanogo, 1987, Squatters and the Roots of Mau Mau. London: James Currey and Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya. -Greet Kershaw, 1997, Mau Mau From Below. Oxford: James Currey and Nairobi: EAEP. -Carl G. Rosberg, Jr. and John Nottingham, 1966, The Myth of "Mau Mau": Nationalism in Kenya. Praeger. -David Throup, 1988, Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau, 1945-53. London: James Currey and Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya. Week 5/Feb. 19 COLONIAL KENYA: "MAU MAU"—Part II -Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 1964, Weep Not, Child, pp. 67-136 (chapters 8-18).
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