Honours Course on History of Africana Intellectualism: 2015
History Department, Rhodes University
Facilitated by Dr. Vashna Jagarnath, Senior Lecturer & Acting-Deputy Dean of Humanities (Research)
Summary of the course
Welcome to this short course that attempts to open up a
discussion on the history of African thought. Given the vastness of the subject
matter we will have to navigate through the key debates and materials rather
than undertaking a comprehensive study. Think of the course as a smorgasbord
picking up bits and pieces arranged under themes. This way we can sample some of the vast array of literature and you will, by the end of the
course, at least be competent in the main debates dealing with African
intellectual thought.
The term Africana intellectual thought in this instance is
not a racially or geographically bound definition. It includes all people born
on the continent as well as its historical and contemporary diaspora. Even
though we are focusing on the history of ideas in Africa many of the ideas that
have been used to understand Africa, both internally and externally, are drawn
from various traditions of ideas including religious, scientific, mythological,
historical, economic and sociological thought from around the world.
The Course will be run over 8 seminar sessions, 2-3 hours in
duration, held once a week on Saturday. Because of the international nature of
the course the seminars will be conducted via Fuze and the reading material
will be available on the RuConnected online resource. Participants will be
expected to do the required readings and participate in the weekly seminars.
Additionally specific readings will be assigned to different participants each
week who will provide a summary of the main arguments of their assigned
reading.
Seminar 1
Introduction
Compulsory Readings
1.William Cohen, David(1989) ‘The Undefining of Oral
Tradition’ in Ethnohistory and Africa, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 9-18
2. Cooper,
Frederick (2000) ‘Africa's Pasts and Africa's Historians’ by Frederick Cooper
in The Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études
Africaines, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 298-336
In this seminar we will also discuss the logistics of the course.
Seminar 2
Oral Traditions and Writing and Religion
The key focus of this seminar will be to engage the debates
on the validity and role of oral traditions in intellectual production. One of
the main assumptions in colonial thought about central and sub-Saharan Africa
was that these societies lacked serious intellectual, political or economic
advancement due to a lack of writing. These views were further supported by the
racist ideology that had, until recent years, dominated European and American
society and their academies. However, recent work on the many oral traditions
indicates that many of these societies had a sophisticated social and political
system, with specialized intellectuals. The rethinking of the role of oral
verses literate societies has allowed for the further development of African
historiography including many areas that have been previously excluded.
A secondary focus of this seminar will be to familiarisation
participants, to some extent, with medieval African society.
Readings on the Sundiata
1. The first
reading deals with the basic structure, main characters and an outline of the
plot of the Sundiata, a medieval praise poem from the Kingdom of
Mali.
Excerpts of Sundiata
2. This reading
is the first forty-seven pages of the Sundiata which you will also be expected
to read to get a sense of the praise poem.
The opening section of the Sundiata
3. This third
text is further reading about the Sundiata.
Conrad, David (1994) ‘A Town called Dhakajalan: The Sunjata
Tradition and the question of Ancient Mali's Capital’ in The Journal of African
History, Vol. 35, No.3, pp. 355-377
4. The Fourth
reading is on ancient Mali to give you a feel for the historical context.
Macdonald, Kevin (1996), ‘A thousand year old City in Mali’
in The African Archaeological Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Jun)., pp. 147-152)
Video
Salif Keita (1995) Mandela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKlaOZ8D5gQ&list=PL201D69498EA75221
Timbuktu: Writing and Religion
One of the key concerns for many thinkers of Colonialism has
been the role of Christianity in the process of Colonialism, especially on the
continent of Africa. However, we will focus on the impact that Islam, a far
more popular religion in pre-colonial Africa than Christianity, had on the
continent. For this week’s seminar please consider not only the role of
religion but also the role of writing and literacy, an activity not commonly
linked to pre-colonial African life. Also think about the impact of Islam on
the intellectual activity during this period.
Readings on Timbuktu
1. Jeppie, Shamil & Diagne Souleymane Bachir (2008) The
Meanings of Timbuktu (HSRC Press: Pretoria)
31 January 2015
Seminar 3
Enslavement of the body not of the mind
The Atlantic slave trade was responsible for dehumanising
some 6 million souls. The shortage of labour during European colonial expansion
led to the developing of the most inhumane labour system. The rhetoric used to
validate this system was based on racism, which rendered the slaves as inhuman.
One of the key claims of racist ideology was that there was a lack of
intelligence and intellectual activity on the part of slaves. Despite these
claims there is a large amount of intellectual work carried out by slaves that
defies the racist narratives. The next two seminars will interrogate some of
this work.
Readings
1. Equiano,
Olaudao (2008) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
(Hogarth Blake Ltd) http://www.hh-bb.com/equiano.pdf
2. Douglass
Frederick (1845) The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas an American
Slave (Anti-Slavery Office: Boston)
http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf
3. Gilbert, Olive
(2000) The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1850) Dictated by Sojourner Truth
(ca.1797-1883) (Pennsylvania State University: Pennsylvania)
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/sojtruth/sojtruth.pdf
4. SLAVE
NARRATIVES: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States, (1941) From
Interviews with Former Slaves, Assembled by The library of Congress Project
http://www.gutenberg.org/license
Seminar 4
Part 1 The Black Jacobins
The Haitian Revolution began in the French colony of Saint
Domingue on 21 August 1791 and was the first slave revolution of the modern
world. Drawing inspiration from the radical changes happening in France Haitian
slaves took on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and through their
revolution realised the full potential of the right of all human being across
race and class.
Readings
1. James, Cyril Lionel Robert (1989) The Black Jacobins:
Toussaint L’ Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (Vintage Books: New York)
Part 2 - Rethinking Blackness- Nationalism and Negritude:
Early 20th Century African Intellectuals
At turn of the twentieth century and the end of slavery there
was a rise in college and mission educated African intellectuals producing work
around issues of liberation and racism both within Africa and across the
Atlantic. At the dawn of this new age free of slavery but still under the yoke
of colonialism and various guises of racism across the globe a new crop of
African intellectuals carved out a space for themselves trying to engage,
understand and succeed in this new world not yet free of oppression.
Readings
1. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (2008) The Souls of
Black Folks (Project Gutenberg License)
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/webdubois/duboissoulsblackfolk6x9.pdf
2. Washington, Booker Taliaferro (2008) Up From Slavery: An
Autobiography (Student Handouts, Inc: Toledo, Ohio)
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/btwash/up_from_slavery.pdf
4. Plaatje, Solomon Tshekisho (2008) Native Life in South
Africa (Blackmask Online) http://www.blackmask.com/
5. Césaire, Aimé (1995) Discourse on Colonialism (Monthly
Review Press: New York)
6. Senghor, Leopold Sedar (1974) ‘Negritude’ in Indian
Literature, Vol. 17, No. ½, pp. 269-273
Seminar 5
Les Damnés de la Terre
This week we will be looking at Frantz Fanon one of the most
important anti-colonial thinkers. Fanon has been important in inspiring
anti-colonial, anti-imperial and anti-racist struggles across the globe. Fanon
has been a central theoretical figure in uprisings of oppressed people in many
parts of the world including the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.
For this seminar we will be bringing in a guest, Dr. Richard Pithouse, an expert on Fanon.
Readings
1. Fanon, Frantz (1986) Black Skins White Masks (Pluto Press:
London)
2. Fanon, Framtz (1963) The Wretched of the Earth (Grove
Weidenfeld: New York)
Seminar 6
The Nationalists
The rise of the nation state in the modern world goes back to
the American, French and Haitian Revolutions and soon became a key demand of
the colonised subject across the world. Within Africa the anti-colonial
struggle took on a particularly nationalist slant and grew in popularity from
Ghana, Senegal and even South Africa which had, at the turn of the twentieth
century achieved nationhood, but still continue to exclude the majority of its
population from the nation. This section will examine the impact of the
nationalist leaders and their work over these anti- colonial/apartheid
movements.
Readings
1. Nkrumah, Kwame (1970) Consciencism: Philosophy and
Ideology for De-Colonisation (First Modem: Reader Paperback Edition)
2. Kenyatta, Jomo (1961) Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life
of the Gikuyu (Mercury Books: London)
3. Mandela, Rolihlahla Nelson (2009) The Struggle is my Life
(Nelson Mandela Foundation)
4. Mandela, Rolihlahla Nelson (1994) A long Walk to Freedom:
The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Backbay Books: London)
Seminar Six
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
The increasing struggle and independence of colonial Africa
after World War 2 was influential in the rising struggle against racism in the
United States in the 1950's, 60's and 70s. The two main movements to rise in
the fight against racism were the Civil Rights Movement under Martin Luther
King Jnr. and a form of Black consciousness under Malcolm X.
Readings
1. Hansen, D. Hansen (2003) The Dream: Martin Luther King,
Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation (Harper Collins: United Kingdom)
2. Lehman, Christopher Paul (2006) ‘Civil Rights in Twilight:
The End of the Civil Rights Movement Era in 1973’ in Journal of Black Studies,
Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 415-428
4. Russell, Thaddeus (2008) ‘The Color of Discipline: Civil
Rights and Black Sexuality’ in American Quarterly
5. Martin, S. Michael (2000) ‘"A Peaceful Demonstration
of Our Feeling toward the Death": University Students in Lafayette,
Louisiana, React to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassination’ in Louisiana
History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 41, No. 3,
pp. 301-316
6. Jones, Antwan (2006) Race and the "I have a
Dream" Legacy: Exploring Predictors of Positive Civil Rights Attitudes in
Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 193-208
7. Carson, Clayborne (2005) The Unfinished Dialogue of Martin
Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 19, No. 1,
Martin Luther King, Jr., pp. 22-26
8. Haley, Alex (1965) The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Grove Press: New
York City)
Seminar Eight
Thabo Mbeki
In this, the final seminar, we will think about how the
history of Africans and various intellectual ideas influenced Mbeki's
development of his African Renaissance.
1. http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/thabo-mvuyelwa-mbeki
Speeches
http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=3423
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2001/mbek0331.htm
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2001/mbek0128.htm
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2000/mbek1005.htm
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/1999/mbek1011.htm
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/1998/mbek0928.htm
http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/1998/mbek0813.htm
2. A Dream Deferred by Mark Gevisser (Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg 2009)
