GES 210 Semester 1

• The Idea of Africa


  Complexities of the "idea of Africa"
• African History


  Major trajectories of "African history"
• Focus & main reading: To explore the complexities of the "idea of Africa" and to map out some of the major trajectories of "African history"
• Main text: John Parker & Richard Rathbone, entitled "African History: A Very Short Introduction"
• GWF Hegel: '"Africa is said to be unhistorical; undeveloped spirit – still involved in the conditions of mere nature; devoid of morality, religions and political constitution"'
• GWF Hegel: '"Africa proper as far as history goes back, has remained for all purposes of connection with the rest of the World – shut up; it is the Gold-land compressed within itself – the land of childhood, which lying beyond the days of self-conscious history, is enveloped in dark mantle of night. The negro … exhibits the natural man in his completely wild and untamed state … there is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in this type of character … Africa is no historical part of the world"'
• Hugh Trevor-Roper: 'Proclaimed that precolonial black Africa had no history. In 1969 he repeated his contention by putting the label 'unhistoric' on the whole of the African continent.'
• Africa: the physical and the discursive


  Africans have been and are the frontiersmen who have colonized an especially hostile region of the world on behalf of the entire human race. That has been their chief contribution to human history. It is why they deserve admiration, support and careful study
• V Y Mudimbe: '"The idea of Africa was initially fashioned not by Africans but by non-Africans, as a "paradigm of difference" – "a prism through which outsiders, mainly Europeans, refracted images of the 'other' and of themselves"'
• Yvonne Chaka Chaka: 'Lyrics of Yvonne Chaka Chaka's Motherland'
• Thabo Mbeki: '"I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land......"'
• Before the 20th century, very few of Africa's inhabitants thought of themselves as Africans
• The black diaspora – originators of the idea of Africa as "homeland"
• The internal popularisation of the notion of Africa as "motherland", a symbol of black pride
• The "north African" vs "sub-Saharan" divide
• The changing historiography of Africa
• Cheikh Anta Diop and the re-interpretation of ancient Egypt
• New sources & mixed methodologies of African history (incl. oral traditions, linguistics, ethnography, etc.)
• Championing of Africanist literature & films by Chinua Achebe, Ousman Sembene etc.
• The 8 volumes of the Unesco General Histories of Africa
• Debates about the purity of African history
• Paul T. Zeleza: '"Is autonomy of African history possible, can this history be written without European referents, is it possible to liberate African history from the epistemological traps of Eurocentricism, the tropes of the "colonial library"?'
• Valentine Mudimbe and Bogumil Jewsiewicki: '"Africans tell, sing, produce (through dance, recitation, marionette puppets), sculpt, and paint their history"'
• Ali Mazrui


  1933 (Mombasa, Kenya) – 2014 (New York, USA), Academic, scholar & political commentator, Critic of African intellectuals (African socialism/Marxism) & persisting global world order (capitalism)
• The Africans: A Triple Heritage


  History documentary released in 1986, Written & narrated by Mazrui, Produced by the BBC (UK), PBS (US) & NTA (Nigeria), Marked by controversy in the US
• Mazrui's "Triple Heritage" theory


  Modern Africa is a product of 3 major influences: Western colonial & imperialist legacy, Spiritual & cultural influence of Islam, African indigenous traditions & values
• Mazrui's "Triple Heritage" theory


  • No-holds-barred, raw & critical historical analysis, Landmark use of medium (video, documentary), "View from the inside", Attempt to decolonize thinking / historical narratives for Global North audiences
• Reception in the UK/US

  • Aired on the BBC to little fanfare, Aired on some PBS channels & received scrutiny for being "anti-Western" – especially from Lynne Cheney, "I was invited by PBS and the BBC to tell the American and British people about the African people, a view from the inside. I am surprised, then, that people are disappointed not to get an American view. An effort was made to be fair but not to sound attractive to Americans." - Ali Mazrui
• Episode 1 – The Nature of a Continent


  Establishing a link between history & geography in Africa, Archaeology reveals Africa as the birthplace of mankind & culture, Morality as emerging from nature, Foreshadowing of climate change
• Episode 2 – A Legacy of Lifestyles


  Diversity of African identities & lifestyles – relations to family ties, tradition & modernity, Loyalty to villages & indigenous practices, "Worship at the altar of materialism"
• Episode 3 – New Gods

  Introduction of religion – main tenet of the series, Foreign religions as "living African realities" nonetheless
• Episode 4 – Tools of Exploitation

  European technology in Africa as "arrogant", Rich in resources despite extreme poverty – failure of the "dual mandate", "Western tastes creating further dependency"
• Episode 5 – New Conflicts


  Confrontations exemplified in Africa's mix of indigenous, Arab & Western forces, Nigerian Civil War, Algerian War & South African apartheid, When is modernity progressive or reactionary?
• Episode 6 – In Search of Stability


  History of governance in Africa, Pre-colonial political systems vs. during & post, Islamic societies as displaying stability
• Episode 7 – A Garden of Eden in Decay


  Technological delay in Africa: climate, foreign invasion & independent Africa's poor judgment, "Nightmare of dependency"
• Episode 8 – A Clash of Cultures


  Various cultures present in Africa, "Indigenous culture must be the foundation", Africa's struggle with modernity
• Episode 9 – Global Africa

  African country's efforts to become players rather than pawns in global affairs, "To know who you are is the beginning of wisdom", Portrayal of Gaddafi as attempting to "turn Africans and Arabs into masters of their own destiny and actors on the world stage"
• Soyinka criticized Mazrui for being overly influenced by Islam - "A spiritual vacuum, in effect, existed into which Islam and Christianity stepped, as the dynamic of nature dictated. Of these two of course, his private superstitious bent, the Islamic, emerged the clear winner" (Soyinka, 1988)
• Mazrui's response: Soyinka critique is a parable of deception; Overplays the threat of religious pluralism; Africa as victor (triumphant in its historical achievements), Africa as victim (humiliated be enslavement and colonialism) and Africa as villain (home of postcolonial corruption, greed, and military coups)
• Resistance


  One of the two main ways African societies responded to colonial conquest