Office: 210 Battle Hall

Office Hours: Wed 8-11

and by appointment

UNC-CH
Spring 2015 8AM

Prof. Hildebrand
hildebra@email.unc.edu

AAAD 130 - Section 4

Introduction to African American and Diaspora Studies
This course will introduce students to some of the ideas, events, individuals, and organizations
that have played major roles in the ongoing process of shaping the contours of the history,
cultures and identities of African in the Western hemisphere, from the landing of the first slave
ships through the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. By its very nature,
a course with a scope that is this broad cannot be comprehensive, but engaged students will
develop a thoughtful understanding of the meaning and complexity of essential themes in the
black experience. Much of the straightforward information will be delivered in lectures, but
class discussions of complex issues will also be an important part of the course. Students will
read and assess a textbook on the African Diaspora, a slave narrative, and memoirs by an AfroCuban woman, and by a black professor from Columbia University who retraces the journey of
her forbears across the Atlantic in an effort to understand the multifaceted significance of that
voyage. Particular attention will be paid to Pan African political and cultural developments like
Negritude, the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Pan African Congresses that
were held between 1900 and 1945. We will also view a film on black Martinique in the 1930s
and discuss segments of documentaries on the cultural and political significance of Muhammad
Ali and Bob Marley. Haiti and Brazil will provide essential perspectives on the black experience
in the Americas. In addition, Ghana recurs as a site and a symbol, because it was a major
entrepot for the slave trade, the nexus of Pan Africanism under Kwame Nkrumah, and it became
the final resting place of W.E.B. Du Bois. Overall, it is the objective of this course to provide
students with a basic framework for understanding the evolving meanings of the term African
American.
The requirements include: two exams (20% & 25%), a cumulative final examination (30%), and
a reflective book review (4-6 pages, 25%). All students are encouraged and expected to
participate in class discussions. In addition students are required to write 1-2 page assessments
of the ways that the main themes of the course are dealt with in the film Sugar Cane Alley and
the book Revita. Those papers will not receive a letter grade, but they must be done in
thoughtfully and well in order to complete the requirements for the course.
The following books are required:
Bueno, Maria
Douglass, Frederick
Gomez, Michael
Hartman, Saidiya

Reyita: The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the 20th Century

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora
Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

Schedule of Classes
(subject to adjustment)

January 8:

Introduction to the Course

13:

Origins of the Slave Trade

a. Gomez, chapter 4

15:

The Mechanics of the Slave Trade

20:

View: The Old African Blasphemer

22:

The Great Dispersal/Creation of the African Diaspora

a. Gomez, chapter 5, and pages 110-115

27:

The Development of Slavery in North America

-Cases of Virginia and South Carolina
-Slavery in U.S. Constitution

29:

The Formation of Afro-American Cultures

February 3:

5:

North American Antebellum Slave Community

a. Gomez, chapter 6, and pages 124-131 (begin reading Douglass)
North American Slave Community
a. continue reading Douglass

10:

Discussion of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

12:

Emancipation in the United States and Its Aftermath

17:

**** First Exam****

19:

The Haitian Revolution

a. Gomez, chapter 6

24:

Emancipation Elsewhere in the Diaspora/Jamaica, Cuba and Brazil

a. review Gomez, chapter 6
b. view movie, Sugar Cane Alley for discussion on March 5th
(available in Undergraduate Library)

26:

Forcibly Rolling Back the Promise of Emancipation in U.S.

The Nadir: The last decades of 19th Century through beginning of 20th

March 3:

5:

Resurgent Radicalisms/Competing Philosophies

W.E.B. Du Bois and N.A.A.C.P v. Marcus Garvey and U.N.I.A
a. Gomez, chapter 7 (suggestion, begin reading Reyita over break)
Discussion of Sugar Cane Alley (Martinique)
(suggestion, begin reading Reyita over the break)

17:

The Pan African Movement in the 20th Century

a. review Gomez, chapter 7
(continue reading Reyita for discussion on the 26th)

19:

Negritude and the New Negro Movement/Harlem Renaissance

a. review Gomez, chapter 7

24:

Black Brazil - Orfeu, Benidita da Silva, Abdias do Nascimento

26:

Discussion of Reyita, by Maria Bueno

31:
April 2:

****Second Exam*****
Martin Luther King, Jr., & U.S. Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968
(begin reading, Lose Your Mother, by Saidiya Hartman)

7:

U.S. Civil Rights continued

9:

Malcolm X - Black Nationalism / Muhammad Ali and Africa

14:

INDEPENDENCE! In the Caribbean and Africa

-Kwame Nkruman and the Ghanaian Nexus

16:

Bob Marley / Soul to Soul

-view and discuss segments of these two documentaries

21:

Roots, Afrocentricity, and Creolite

23:

-Brief discussion of Hartman

-Concluding summary of main themes of the course
****Hartman Papers due in class****

FINAL EXAM, TUESDAY, APRIL 28th, at 8 AM

ADDENDUM

1. Attendance is expected, but ultimately is your responsibility. This is not the 4th grade.
2. Students are encouraged to take notes in any way, or with any device, that will be effective
and not distracting or disruptive. Computers are permitted and welcome. Watching students
read or send electronic messages during class is annoying and a nuisance. It is also more
obvious than you may think. You should not come to class on those days when you know that
you will be unable to pay attention for 75 minutes.
3. It is my responsibility as instructor to provide comments and clarity concerning grades. If the
reason you received a grade is unclear, or seems unfair, you are encouraged to talk with me
during office hours, or at another time that may work better for your schedule.
[for computing grades for exam questions and Hartman paper; A+ 98, A 95; A-92, B+ 88, B 85,
B- 82, C+ 78, C 75, C- 75, D+ 68, D 65, D- 62, F 50]
[ for computing exam grades and grade for course: A+ 99-98, A 97-94, A- 93-90; B+ 89-88, B,
87-84, B- 83-80; C+ 79-78, C 77-74, C- 73-70; D+ 69-68, D 67-64, D- 63-60; F, below 60]
4. The lack of intellectual integrity will make this whole exercise a pointless, useless waste of
time. Your own sense of integrity should suffice, but we are all expected and required to adhere
to the Universitys Honor Code, and to indicate so by signing the pledge on all work. For more
information see:
https://studentconduct.unc.edu/sites/studentconduct.unc.edu/files/documents/Instrument.pdf
5. Assignments and deadlines are subject to adjustment. Grading criteria and scales are not.
6. Accommodations will be made for any documented disability. This is a routine matter with
which students should feel comfortable. Confidentiality will be respected.
Students who feel they may need accommodations based on the impact of a disability should
contact the course instructor to discuss their needs. Students with documented disabilities
should also contact the Department of Accessibility Resources and Services at 919-962-8300 in
SASB North Building, Suite 2126 to coordinate necessary accommodations for exams and other
in class assignments. Visit the internet address of this office at http://accessibility.unc.edu
for more information.