African Diaspora Communities and Cultures MWF 1:30-2:20 Monroe Hall 412 Spring 2016

Dr. Angel Adams Parham Office Phone: 504-865-3581 Office Hours: Mon 3:00-4:15 pm, Wed 3:00-4:15 pm OR By Appointment Office: Monroe Hall room 240 E-mail: [email protected]

Course Description The African diaspora in the Americas includes a large number of diverse communities and cultures. What are their commonalities and what are their differences? What does it mean to be both “African” and “American”? These are complex questions and we will study the rich tradition of scholarly work that has addressed them. Once we establish the conceptual and theoretical foundation for our discussions, we spend the bulk of the course comparing and contrasting African diaspora communities in Haiti, , Louisiana, and the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands. In our study of the U.S. we will give special attention to the past and present of New Orleans, and its rich African diaspora history and traditions..

Hybrid Course Structure This course is taught with a combination of face to face and online sessions. Monday and Wednesday classes are conducted in class, face to face. All Friday sessions are online sessions. For Friday sessions you will be asked to participate in the course discussion forum on Blackboard or to complete a brief response to course readings or lectures.

Course Readings All required readings will be placed on Blackboard.

Grading Breakdown (by percentage): 93-100 A 73-76 C 90-92 A- 70-72 C- 87-89 B+ 67-69 D+ 83-86 B 63-66 D 80-82 B- 60-62 D- 77-79 C+ <60 F

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Disability Services and Accommodations

A student with a disability that qualifies for accommodations should contact the director of Disability Services at 865-2990 (Academic Resource Center, Room 405, Monroe Hall). A student wishing to receive test accommodations (eg. extended test time) should provide the instructor with an official Accommodation Form from Disability Services in advance of the scheduled test date.

Course Readings All required readings will be placed on Blackboard.

Course Requirements Percentage of Course Online Sessions 20

Attendance and In-Class Participation 15

Research Paper (Divided up into three parts) 45

Oral Final Exam 20

Total 100

Online Sessions

All Monday and Wednesday sessions will meet face to face and all Friday sessions will be conducted online. The content of the Friday online sessions will include a 5 question multiple choice, open-book quiz AND your written, qualitative response to one or more of the following: a reading, film, or online simulation or activity.

For online sessions you will be required to complete the reading, film or online activity and then complete the activities outlined for that session. These sessions are mandatory and will be graded.

2 In-Class Participation

This part of your grade is based on a combination of attendance and verbal participation in class discussions on Mondays and Wednesdays. I will take attendance and will make note of your participation in Monday and Wednesday discussions. In order to get credit, your participation needs to be based on your engagement with and direct reference to the reading with page numbers.

Research Paper

This paper will be divided up into three parts with due dates throughout the semester.

Oral Final Exam

The oral final exam will occur as a 20 minute one-on-one session between each student and the instructor. Your oral exam time will be scheduled during a 20 minute period during the last week of class OR on the day of the university’s official final exam period for this class. I will work with you to find a time that is convenient for you.

In-Class Oral Questions—Extra Credit

Because the final exam is in oral form, and because you will need to be able to answer these questions comprehensively and with excellent reference to readings, concepts and theories from the course, we will have opportunities in class each week for a few people to answer a sample oral exam question based on what we have learned up until that point in the semester.

The person who answers will get extra credit that will be graded according to how well the question was answered. After she/he answers, we will use the response to discuss the strengths and weaknesses and how the response could be improved. Thus this extra credit will serve as a mini-review both for the individual and for the class as a whole.

Salons—Extra Credit

Three times during the semester you have the opportunity to participate in a “salon”. These meetings consist of discussion over refreshments outside of class and are restricted to 10 participants. Salons are designed to allow us to wrestle with and reflect upon the issues we are studying as well as to help us think about the personal and social implications of what we have been studying. There will therefore be ample time for discussing how what we have been studying makes a difference for our lives.

Each “salon” earns a participant extra credit toward the final grade in the course. Sign- ups for the salons will occur the week before the salon is scheduled to take place.

3 Policy on Late Work

Online Sessions: NO late work will be accepted. If the online contribution has not been received by the due date and time it will not be accepted.

Analytical Papers The first paper may be turned in up to 7 days late with 10% taken off of the grade for each day late (Saturdays and Sundays are also included as days where points will be lost). The second paper will NOT be accepted late.

Oral Final Exam: You must come to your scheduled test appointment. This exam will be cumulative. There will be no make-ups.

IMPORTANT:

• Bring your reading to EVERY class session where we meet face to face. This means that you must print out the readings from Blackboard each time we meet.

Module 1: African and American—Conceptual Foundations

W 1/20 Introduction: What does it mean to be “African and “American”?

Reading:Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard

F 1/22 Online Session

• Selection from Voyage of the Sable Venus by Robin Coste Lewis

Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday January 23rd

M 1/25 • “Forgotten Memories”, pp.3-16 in The Negro Family in the United States by E. Franklin Frazier,1966,University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL (originally published in 1939)

• “African survivals in America”, pp.168-175 in The African Background Outlined: Or handbook for the study of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson, 1936, The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc. Washington, D.C. W 1/27 “The contemporary scene: Africanisms in secular life”, pp.143-206 in The Myth of the Negro Past, by Melville Herskovits, 1941, Harper and Bros. Publishers, New York, NY.

F 1/29 Online Session

Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday January 30th

4 M 2/1 “Kinship and sex roles”, pp. 61-80 in The Birth of African-American Culture: An anthropological perspective by Sidney W. Mintz and Richard Price, 1992, Beacon Press, Boston, MA.

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Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard

W 2/3 “Dancing between circles and lines”, pp.1-23 in The Afrocentric Idea by Molefi Kete Asante, 1998, Temple University Press, Philadelphi, PA

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Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard

F 2/5 Online Session

Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday, February 6th

M 2/8 Holiday

W 2/10 Mardi Gras Holiday

F 2/12 Mardi Gras Holiday

Module 2: African and American in Haiti

M 2/15 “Slaves in the North”, pp.91-117 in The Making of Haiti:The St. Domingue Revolution from Below by Carolyn Fick

W 2/17 “The history of voodoo”, pp.25-49 in Voodoo in Haiti by Alfred Métraux, transltd by Hugo Cherteris, 1972 Schocken Books, New York, NY (originally, 1959)

F 2/19 Research Statement and Literature Review Due—My Office by 12pm, Noon

Online Session

Response Due by 5pm, on Saturday, February 20th

M 2/22 “The Art of Transformation”

5 W 2/24 Selections from: Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry eds. Paul Laraque and Jack Hirschman

F 2/26 Online Session

Response Due by 5pm on Saturday, February 27th

Module 3: African and American in Louisiana

M 2/29 “The Creole Slaves: Origin, family, language, folklore”, pp.156-200 in Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, 1992, LSU Press, Baton Rouge,LA.

W 3/2 Excerpt from Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook, by Jeffrey Anderson. 2008. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport, CT

F 3/4 Online Session Excerpt from Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure: A Handbook, by Jeffrey Anderson. 2008. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport, CT Response Due by 5pm Saturday, March 5th M 3/7 “The Kongo Period”, pp. 106-115 in The World that Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette, 2008, Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago, IL.

W 3/9 “Louisiana Creole Food Culture:Afro- Links”, by Sybil Kein, pp. 244-251 in Creole: The history and legacy of Louisiana’s free people of color, edited by Sybil Kein, 2000, LSU Press, Baton Rouge, LA

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Poetry Selections, See on Blackboard

F 3/11 Online Session

“A Commentary: African Cultural Retentions in Louisiana”, by Charles E. Siler (Available at the link below)

http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/afri_cult_retent.html

Response Due by 5pm Saturday, March 12th

6 Module 4: African and American in Georgia and South Carolina

M 3/14 “A people in crisis”, pp.3-12 in The Gullah People and their African Heritage by William S. Pollitzer, 1999, University of Georgia Press, Athens,GA.

W 3/16 “Society and Culture”, pp. 130-164 in The Gullah People and their African Heritage by William S. Pollitzer, 1999, University of Georgia Press, Athens,GA.

F 3/18 Online Session

Response Due by 5pm, Saturday, March 19th

M 3/21 Easter Break

W 3/23 Easter Break

F 3/25 Easter Break

M 3/28 Easter Break

W 3/30 • “Hagar Brown”, pp.16-36 in Coming Through: Voices of a South Carolina Gullah Community from WPA Oral Histories, Collected by Genevieve W. Chandler, eds. Kincaid Mills, Genevieve C. Peterkin, and Aaron McCllough, 2008, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC

• “Zackie Knox”, pp.238-265 in Coming Through: Voices of a South Carolina Gullah Community from WPA Oral Histories, Collected by Genevieve W. Chandler, eds. Kincaid Mills, Genevieve C. Peterkin, and Aaron McCllough, 2008, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC. F 4/1 Research Paper Rough Draft

Due in My Office by 12pm, Noon

Online session

“Dayclean”, pp.1-8, “A special gift”, pp.9-18, “Coming Home”, pp.251-265, “The eye of the storm”, pp.266-278, “I flew back”, pp.298-319, “Watch Night”, pp.320-334 in God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A saltwater Geechee talks about life on Sapelo island, Georgia, by Cornelia Bailey Walker with Christena Bledsoe, 2000, Anchor Books, New York, NY.

Response Due by 5pm, Saturday, April 2nd

7 Module 5: African and American in the Bahamas

M 4/4 “The lifeways of the slaves”, pp.297-334 in Islanders in the Stream:A History of the Bahamian People, Volume 1: From Aboriginal times to the end of slavery, by Michael Craton and Gail Saunders, 1992, University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.

W 4/6 Bain Town pp.1-45, by Cleveland Eneas, 2007 (originally 1976), Author House, Bloomington, IN.

F 4/8 Online Session

“Loyalists, Geechees and Africans: North American roots of Afro-Bahamian culture”, pp.49-61 by Keith Cartwright in Yinna, vol. 1, 2000, Journal of the Bahamas Association for Cultural Studies

Response Due by 5pm, Saturday, April 9th

M 4/11 “Goin’ Back ta Da Islan’: Migration, memory and the marketplace in Bahamian art”, pp.29-46 by Ian Gregory Strachan in Yinna, vol. 2, 2007, Journal of the Bahamas Association for Cultural Studies W 4/13 “ in the Bahamas: A tale of identity”, pp.118-130 by Nicolette Bethel, in Junkanoo and religion: and cultural identity in the Bahamas, 2003, Media Enterprises LimitedNassau, Bahamas.

F 4/15 Online Session “Paradise” by Christian Campbell “Wax paper people” “Pashion prancing on pulse of goat-skinned drums” by Tania R. Dixon “Identity 1” “Slave name” “gods and spirits are summoned through the portal divine” by Ian Gregory Strachan, “Ode to the Bahamas” by Anthony Dahl “Where is the sun” by Beatrice Gardiner “Ghetto Boy” “Here I stand” “Sea” by Aurora Ferguson “Cold snap” Response Due by 5pm, Saturday, April 16th

8 Module 6: African and American Across the U.S.—Religion

M 4/18 “Perspectives for a study of African American Religion” by Charles H. Long, pp. 9-19 in Down by the Riverside:Readings in African American Religion, ed. Larry G. Murphy, 2000, NYU Press, New York, NY.

W 4/20 “Black theology as liberation theology”, by James H. Cone, pp.389-413 in Down by the Riverside:Readings in African American Religion, ed. Larry G. Murphy, 2000, NYU Press, New York, NY. F 4/22 Online Session

Response Due by 5pm , Saturday, April 23rd

Module 7: African and American Across the U.S.—Music

M 4/25 “Africanisms in African-American Music”, pp.185-210 by Portia K. Maultsby in Africanisms in American Culture, ed. Joseph E. Holloway, 1990, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.

W 4/27 “ I don’t trust you anymore’: Nina Simone, Culture, and Black Activism in the 1960s”, by Ruth Felstein, pp.1349-1379 in The Journal of American History, March 2005.

F 4/29 Final Research Paper Due in My Office by 12pm, Noon

Online Session

“Here come my train: Travelling themes and women’s blues”, pp.66-90 by Angela Y. Davis in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, 1998, Vintage Books, New York, NY.

Response Due by 5pm, Saturday, April 30th

Module 8: African and American—Theorizing and Living Diaspora

M 5/2 • “The New Black Aesthetic” by Trey Ellis, Callaloo,(Winter, 1989),233- 243

• “Poetry and Post-Soul Cosmopolitanism”

• EXCERPT, Against Race, by Paul Gilroy

9 W 5/4 • “Prologue: The path of strangers” and “Afrotopia”, pp.3-48 in Lose your mother: A journey along the Atlantic slave route by Saidiya Hartman, Farrar, Strous and Giroux, 2007, New York, NY.

• “Bye Bye Babar”—Statement on Afropolitanism by Taiye Selasi, See at the link below: http://thelip.robertsharp.co.uk/?p=76

• “Black America Please Stop Appropriating African Clothing and Tribal Marks”. September 3, 2015, See at the link below: https://thsppl.com/black-america-please-stop-appropriating-african- clothing-and-tribal-marks-3210e65843a7#.7gvdm9use

• “Black Americans Wearing African Clothing is NOT Cultural Appropriation” by Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor. Se at the link below: http://ourlegaci.com/2015/09/07/black-americans-wearing-african- clothing-is-not-cultural-appropriation/

• “Afropolitanism and What to Make of African American Cultural Appropriation of African Styles”. October 14, 2015, See at the link below: https://afrosartorialism.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/taiye-selasi-a-ted-talk- on-afropolitanism/

F 5/6 Multiple Choice Online Final Exam

Due By Saturday May 7th at 5pm

M 5/9 Wrap-Up Discussion

W 5/11 Oral Final Exams Begin

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