Intro to African Studies: Objectives and Assessments

• Culture and Development is the focus of the UGRC 229 course
• It is an introduction to African studies

Course Facilitators

• Prof. Albert K. Awedoba (DPhil)
• The Teaching Assistant
• You, the UGRC 229 class

Website Resources (Sakai LMS on the UG website)

• E-resources such as papers and notes are posted on the UGRC 229 website
• PowerPoint presentations will be available to enhance learning and teaching, but not immediately after lectures
• Knowledge sharing is encouraged
• Note-taking is advised, but listening and understanding are more important

Lecture 1 and 2 Description

• The aims are to generate interest in African Studies
• Provide background information on Africa and its histories, peoples, and cultures
• To serve as a springboard for topics and subjects in subsequent lectures on Culture and Development

Course Objectives

• Enable students to appreciate the contemporary value of African Studies as an area of enquiry
• Assist students to engage with discourses on African realities.
• Encourage students to appreciate African Identities
• Help students develop a sense of Self Determination in the global world
• Make students aware of negative Africa stereotypes and encourage challenging them
• Develop appropriate methodologies and frameworks for examining Africa and its past through multi-disciplinary approaches
• Highlight some of Africa's contributions to world civilizations and knowledge generation
• Enhance students' knowledge in specific areas of African Humanities and the Social Sciences

Course Requirements

• Assessments include an interim assessment (30%) and a final exam (70%)
• Course activities may include formal instruction, group discussions, class presentations, tutorials, and essays/written assignments

General Intro

• This is Week 1, focusing on the value of African Studies in today's world

Learning objectives

• Students should be able to understand the distinctive nature of Africa
• Students should be able to explain various misrepresentations of Africa
• Students should be able to appreciate significant African contributions to world civilization
• Students should be able to appreciate the African Identity

Who is an African?

• How are African identities constructed in the face of the mosaic of identities that people of African ancestry living within and beyond the continent bear?
• To what extent do all categorized as Africans or as having an African pedigree perceive themselves as Africans?
• To what degree are all who perceive themselves as Africans accepted as such?
• Are there levels of "Africanness", and are some more African than others?
• How do African identities interface with other identities and citizenships in Africa?
• What are the implications of contentious African identities and citizenship for the projects of pan-Africanism, the making of Africa-nations, and Africa's development trajectories?
• Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States and Dr. Guy Scott - Vice President & later Acting President of Zambia are examples

Defining Africanness

• Multilayered-ness
• Legal aspects include citizenship, parentage, naturalization
• Conceptual aspects include philosophical shared value systems & world views, for example, "ubuntu” – I am because we are, and Belief in the ancestors
• Cultural aspects include tangibles, which are buildings, monuments, and artifacts, and intangibles, which are skills, highly developed oral traditions, and knowledge systems

Defining Africa

• Race: range of racial types on the continent; South Africa describes itself as the rainbow nation
• People of African descent: Large concentrations in Northern & Southern America and the Caribbean, also found in India, the Middle East
• Politics: citizenship in one of the 53 countries of the AU, long term residence in an African country.
• Geography: Countries on the African Continent
• Africa is not a country, but a continent.
• Allegiance: Dedication to African heritage & aspirations

African Union (AU)

• There are 54 countries in the AU
• The only African state that is not a member is Morocco
• The AU was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis Ababa, and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa
• The aim of the AU was replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU)

Misrepresenting Africa

• Some people still say about Africa that it is a continent without history
• Some say it is a people with no civilization (savages, barbarians, primitives)
• Some say Africa is the 'Dark' continent and Africans have inferior minds

Two types of narratives about Africa

• Except Africa Narrative & the Doomsday Narrative

Except Africa

• The belief is that development works everywhere in the world but not in Africa
• Therefore, Africa has to change rather than development policies should be tailored to better meet the needs of Africa
• Africa must change to fit development paradigms

Doomsday narratives

• There is a crisis of overpopulation in Africa, poverty, drought, over utilisation of scarce resources, environmental crisis, corruption, ethnic tensions, civil wars, which all result in terrible crisis that requires external interventions to halt
• The solution has to come from outside, since African states are not competent to solve problems they themselves have created
• The continent is know for EBOLA and annual epidemics of cholera.
• Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was a Venezuelan politician and the President of Venezuela from 1999 until 2013
• Silvio Berlusconi, he was one of Italy's longest serving post-war prime ministers, and one the country's richest men, he was eventually convicted and sent to jail

Representing Africa

• Contemporary Africa has contributed positively to global knowledge production and civilization in many areas
• Agriculture
• Academia
• International Trade and Commerce
• Science and technology

Coffee

• Coffee originated wholly in Africa, and there are three types of coffee: Arabica (originated in Ethiopia), Robusta (originated in Congo), and Liberica (originated in Liberia)
• The highest quality of coffee is Arabica
• Coffee was introduced into Dutch colonies in Java in the 1690s
• In 1720s coffee was carried by the French and Dutch into botanical gardens in the Americas, Dutch Guinea (Surinam), Haiti and Santa Domingo
• Robusta and Liberica species were also carried into South America
• By the nineteenth century Yemeni and Ethiopian production in international trade in coffee had become insignificant
• I recent years coffee production has rapidly expanded in Africa with Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya becoming significant producers of Arabica and Côte d'Ivoire of Robusta (mainly used in producing Nescafe)
• While producers get a small percentage of the total price if the coffee value changes, in recent years the government of Ethiopia has successfully got different varieties in Ethiopia internationally recognised for their heritage and gained a premium price for these varieties in European markets

Cocoa

• Cocoa is largely produced in West Africa, with over 80% of global production originating from West Africa.
• The dominant producers, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, produce around 70% of global supplies
• Cocoa is a South American crop originally introduced into Sao Tomé and Principe off the coast of Cameroon, from where it was subsequently smuggled into the Gold Coast by Tetteh Quarshie
• By 1820s Gold Coast emerged as most important producer contributing 70-80% of global supplies
• Largely produced by rural farmers for export rather than for domestic consumption, it exemplifies of successful agrarian capitalism in Africa.
• During the 1970s Côte d'Ivoire overtook Ghana as major producer and competition also came from Brazil and Malaysia
• International production became increasingly competitive and the West African producers were able to out compete others

Positive Representation Africa

• Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian poet, playwright, and novelist
• He wrote many plays and poems using the mythology of the Yoruba
• He addresses social and political issues in Nigeria and Africa
• In 1967, he was jailed for 22 months for secretly meeting with Ojukwu of Biafra to try and prevent civil war
• In 1986 he won the Nobel prize for Literature, the first African to win the prize for new literatures
• In 1994, he had to flee into exile to escape imprisonment by Abacha
• Prof. Souleymane Mboup from Senegal discovered the HIV-2 Virus
• Dr. Oviemo Ovadje from Nigeria discovered Blood Auto-transfusion
• Samuel Todo from Togo created a Humanoid Robot
• Jean-Patrice Keka from Democratic Republic of Congo invented Space Rockets
• Prof. Francis K.A. Allotey from Ghana invented the Allotey Principle
• Victor and Johnson Obasa from Nigeria invented the Armoured Vehicle
• Simon Mwaura from Kenyan invented a Multipurpose Mobile Remote control
• Nii Narku Quaynor from Ghana, is one of the Pioneers of designing and developing the internet
• Abdoulaye Toure from Senegal invented a Solar Oven
• Philippe Yoda from Burkina Faso developed Plastic Recycling
• Phillip Emeagwali from Nigeria created a Connection Machine Supercomputer
• Prof. Monty Jones-renowned plant breeder from Sierra Leone won the 2004 World Food prize for leading a team at the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA) which successfully crossed West African rice (Oryza glaberrima) with Asian rice (Oryza sativa) creating the Nerica varieties (New Rice for Africa), a rare and successful hybridisation of rice
• It was established by the Ethiopian government in 1945
• It has survived the many crises that have plagued the airline industry since its establishment and has grown to become one of the major airlines in the world flying a wide range of routes the world over -"With its ten modern 787s and its confident global ambitions, Ethiopian Airlines has not just Africa, but the whole world, in its hands”

African Studies

• It is a formally organized multi-disciplinary academic study of the continent of Africa and the African diaspora
• The study of African Studies is three-dimensional: research/knowledge production, dissemination of knowledge and teaching, and the application of knowledge and transformation of knowledge into policies and social action

Accessing Sources on Africa

• Documentary & Non-documentary
• Archaeology provides information about how humans adapted to their environment Archaeological information is obtained through the excavation of specially selected sites: Ife Bronze works, Zimbabwe ruins, and Pharaonic pyramids.
• Linguistics: Study of origins, use, structure, and changes of a language
• A comparative study of languages can provide valuable historical information: a study of Bantu and W/African languages provide evidence of a common ancestor
• Languages that are closely related share features: Ga & Dangme or Waale & Dagaare are deemed to have sprung from a parent language

Shared Linguistic Origins:

• Evidence that genetically related languages have shared words (cognates), and sounds
• folklore (traditional knowledge and beliefs) of cultures without no written language Transmitted by word of mouth and consists of both prose and verse (narratives, poems and songs, myths, dramas, and proverbs)
• Often transmitted by specialists/experts: can provide valuable facts and profound perspectives on life
• Nearly all known and extinct cultures have produced oral traditions

New Media provides information

• Primary written sources are official reports, files, court documents, financial papers, newspapers, old family papers or official files. Secondary sources are books of analytical & scholarly articles
• Tertiary sources consist of encyclopedias and bibliographies
• Institutional sources include museums, archives, and libraries

Summary

• Overview of Introduction to African Studies
• The distinct nature of Africa and its people
• Misrepresentations and negative stereotypes about Africa
• Significant contributions by Africans that (may) have been excluded in the dominant narrative about world civilisation
• Several sources of data and information on Africa

Explore the goals, stereotypes, learning outcomes & assessments of African Studies introductory lectures. This quiz covers course objectives, cultural symbols like 'Dwaninmen', Africa's global contributions, and access to learning materials including the origin of coffee.