PAU 3101 HISTORY OF AFRICA

COURSE OUTLINE: January, 2018 INSTRUCTORS: Dr. Felix Kiruthu/

Prof. Samson Omwoyo
Course Description
a) Africa is one of the most misunderstood continents, with its history often read from a
Western perspective resulting in studying it by analogies. Its ‘indigenous history’ is
overshadowed by its colonial encounters with Europe. The continent’s inextricable integration
in global imperial designs had far reaching implications on its political and economic
development trajectory. It has remained economically poor, politically unstable, and socially
fragmented. These challenges provoke the need to understand the continent so as to develop
historically informed solutions, rather than relying on external and historical ones that have
failed.
This course provides a broad thematic exploration of the history Africa from a pan-African and
decolonial epistemic perspective. This means studying African historical experiences from the
time of Egypt and Kush in the 9th century BCE to the present in their own right and context
while consistently being critical of using Euro-American concepts in studying African history.
In conceptual and epistemological terms, the course starts off with introducing students to
decolonial epistemic perspective which informs a pan-African understanding of African
historical experiences and realities. In thematic and chronological terms, the course
commences with a detailed exploration of ‘indigenous Africa’ dated from the 9th century BCE
that is before the Christian era to AD 1500 which opened with the one-set of trans-Atlantic
slave trade. It proceeds to study the unfolding of global imperial designs that took the form of
cartographic mapping and representation of Africa on the one hand, while on the other
unleashing such inimical global processes as mercantilism, the slave trade, imperialism, and
colonialism as dark sides of modernity that resulted in underdevelopment of Africa.
The fourth segment of the courses is an exploration of African responses and resistance to
colonial domination which involved ‘primary’ and ‘active’ resistance, various ways of adaptation
to colonial reality, rise of pan-Africanism as a counter-discourse to imperial global designs, and
ultimately the rise of African nationalism and liberation struggles that culminated in
decolonization in the 1960s. The fifth segment examines the age of the African national project
and how the founding fathers of the post-independent states implemented it. By the mid-1970s
the African national project fell into crisis due to the impact of the rise of neo-liberalism and
entry of structural adjustment programmes and its anti-African national project philosophies
that resulted in deliberate weakening of the postcolonial state as an institution.
The final section explores the re-emerging African consensus on pan-African unity as the
salvation for Africa in the 21st century. The focus is on the history of building of pan-African
institutions at the continental level and the initiatives towards reconstitution of the post-
independent state into a thoroughly indigenized, fully decolonized, and deeply democratized
institution capable of serving the interests of Africans while resisting Euro-American
interventions.

b) Course Objectives
At the end of the course, a student should be able to:

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i. To recognize the importance of decolonial epistemic perspective as a lens of understanding
African historical experiences and realities;

ii. To appreciate the character and dynamics of ‘indigenous Africa’ prior to imperial and colonial
encounters;

iii. To understand the combination of discursive and historical processes that produced Africa;

iv. To know the impact and role of imperial global designs on African historical experiences
and realities;

v. To develop sound and critical oral and written communication skills necessary in articulation
of African and pan-African issues;

vi. To appreciate African agency in history and evaluate the trajectories of the continuing
struggles of African people within and outside the continent, for liberation, democracy, and
development;

vii. To develop historically informed strategies of solving current African problems and
challenges.

c) Expected Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course a student is expected to:

i. Demonstrate an understanding African historical experiences and realities;

ii. Demonstrate knowledge of indigenous Africa;

iii. Demonstrate good understanding of the impact and role of imperial global designs on Africa;

iv. To demonstrate critical oral and written communication skills necessary in articulation of
African and pan-African issues;

v. Apply relevant theoretical tools in interrogating the African reality;

vi. To demonstrate a good grasp of historically- informed strategies of solving current African
problems and challenges.

d) Course Content

i. Introduction-Decolonial Epistemic Perspective in African History

ii. Ancient African Civilizations and kingdoms: Egypt, Meroe, Axum, Ghana, Zimbabwe etc.
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iii. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: causes, course & consequences on African peoples.

iv. Africa in snares of global Imperial Designs: Scramble & Partition of Africa
(Motives of European colonialism and consequences on African communities)

V. African agency: Responses to Colonialism and Decolonization

vi. The Nationalist Project and the National Question

vii. Post independence political, social and economic developments and challenges

Viii. New African Consensus in rebuilding PAN African Institutions in the 21st Century (Regional
integration: EAC. SADC, ECOWAS, OAU, AU).

e) Method of Assessment & Measurements

f) Course Work (CW) - 40% while Examination constitutes - 60%

To successfully complete this course, students must attend and participate in lectures, tutorials,
seminars, write assignments and produce a research paper. Therefore, in order to successfully
attain full credits, students must complete all of the following tasks:

i. Each student is expected participate in Group work and make a class presentation which will
constitute 20% of course work.
ii. Each candidate will also submit a 4000 word Research Essay constituting the other 20%
component of course work.
References
1. Jewsieewicki, B. and Mudimbe, V.Y., (1993) “African Memories and Contemporary
History of Africa”,History and Theory, vol.32, no. 4.Dec 1993.
2. Floyed S.A. (1995): The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to
the USA, New york. Oxford University Press.
3. Frederich, G, M. Black Liberation: A Comparative History of Black Ideologies in the USA
and South Africa. New York. OUP
4. Conteen, G.C., (2000): Afro-Centric Thought and Praxis, Trenton, New Jersey, World
Press.
5. Dubois, WEB (2003): The world and Africa: An Inquiry into the part which Africa has
played in world history. Canada, International Publishers.
6. Curtin, D.P. (1972): Africa and the West, USA. University of Wisconsin Press.
7. Mudimbe, V.Y., Bates, R.H. and O’barr, J. (1993): Africa and the Disciplines: The
contributions of Research in Africa to the Social sciences and Humanities. University of
Chicago Press.
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 8. Bogues, A., (2003): “Teaching radical Africana political thought and intellectual
history,” Radical History Review, Issue 87, Fall 2003, Duke University Press.
9. Morris A.D., (1999): “A Retrospective on the civil rights movement: Political and
Intellectual landmarks,” Annual Reviews of Sociology, Vol, 25(1999), pp517-539.
10. African Athena?Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Vol. 1, the
Fabrication ofAncient Greece 1785-1985.
11. Martin Bernal; Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of ClassicalCivilization, Vol. 2, The
Archaeological and Documentary Evidence.
12. Martin BernalReview by: V. Y. MudimbeTransition, No. 58 (1992), pp. 114-
123Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the W.E.B. Du Bois
InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2934970 .

13. Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
14. Appiah, K.A., In My Father’s House, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992
15. Ake, C., Revolutionary Pressures in Africa, London: Zed Press, 1978

16. Ake, C., A Political Economy of Africa, London: Longman, Harlow, 1981.

17. Baran, P., Political Economy of Growth, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1957.

18. Owen, R and Sutcliffe, B., eds. Studies in the Theory of Imperialism, London: Longman,
1972.

19. Rodney, W., How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Publishing
House, 1972.

20. Fanon, F. The Wretched of the Earth, London: Penguin Books, 1961 (2001).

21. Stiglitz, J. (2002): Globalization and its Discontents

22. Collier, P., The Bottom Billion, Oxford: OUP, 2008

23. Bayart, J.F., Ellis,S. and Hibou, B.: The Criminalization of the State in Africa,
Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, (1999).