Course Requirements and Procedures

• Evaluation in this seminar will be based entirely on your written preparation for each class and your contribution to a productive discussion that engages fully with assigned readings. A written response to each reading assignment is due by 10:00 am on the day for which the reading is assigned: it may be emailed to the professor or placed in her mailbox in the History Department.

• Where the syllabus poses discussion questions, your response to the reading should state your answer to the questions and the evidence from the reading you will use to support it, list points you intend to raise in the discussion, and note questions you wish to clarify in class. A reading response in outline form will be about a page long; a prose reading response should be no longer than three pages. No late reading responses will be accepted.

• On February 18 and April 1, papers are required instead of reading responses. These two papers, and your preparation for the in-class oral final, will each count for 12% of the grade. Each other class after the first one will count as approximately 6% of the final grade.

• Productive discussions are not automatic. They require a clear sense of purpose, an attitude of respect, and a commitment to the productivity of the whole group on the part of all participants. In this seminar, our purpose is understanding each of the readings, and using them to make sense of a set of tremendously serious world problems. Respect involves taking each others' ideas seriously (not necessarily agreeing with them), but also coming to class prepared to make a contribution. As the semester progresses, we will evaluate and attempt to enhance our ability to work together to create productive discussions.

• Throughout the semester, we will attempt to follow news reports of the potential famine now developing in East Africa, and other aspects of African news that relate to the content of the class. One student each week will be responsible for monitoring international and African newspapers that week, and forwarding relevant news stories to other class members via the class email list or by providing copies of newspaper articles in class.

• Students are encouraged to post questions or comments about the reading to the class email list, and to respond to others' questions and comments.

• Students will be required to attend two events outside of class: a lecture on structural adjustment by Professor Paus, and a presentation by an African delegation on local level conflict resolution. Both events are tentatively scheduled for late March.

  Course Readings
  The following texts are available at the Odyssey Bookshop. Reading packets are available in Skinner 309.

  • Sara Berry, No Condition is Permanent
  • Donald R. Wright, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa
  • Landeg White, Magomero: Portrait of a Village
  • ONE OF: Ousman Sembene, God's Bits of Wood or Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Petals of Blood

  SCHEDULE OF CLASSES:

  • January 28: Introduction, Map Exercise
  • February 4: The Concept of Famine/Indigenous Agricultural Technology
    Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, Hunger and Public Action, Reading Packet
    Paul Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution, Reading Packet
    MEET IN LIBRARY REFERENCE ROOM 422 AT 1:00
    
    Discussion Questions: What is the difference between a disastrous loss of food and famine? What factors are critical in causing famine? What is the logic of West African farming systems?
  • February 11: Background to Modern African Food Systems
    Wright, 1-134
    White, 1-70
    Discussion Questions: What were the consequences of the slave trade for Niumi and Magomeru? How would these changes have affected systems of food production? Wright makes an explicit statement of his ideological position: how do you see this affecting his interpretation of events in Niumi?
  • February 18: European Conquest and its Effects on Agrarian Systems
    John Tosh, "Lango Agriculture During the Early Colonial Period", Reading Packet
    J.R.P. Postlethwaite, I Look Back, Reading Packet
    Film: Basil Davidson "The Bible and the Gun"

    Paper Topic: The reading from Postlethwaite describes his venture into the Lango area to establish British colonial rule. Write a carefully constructed 3-4 page paper on how his actions would have affected the Lango agricultural system described by John Tosh.

  • February 25: Agrarian Consequences of Colonial Rule in Niumi and Magomeru
    Wright, 135-218
    White, 73-200
    Film: This Magnificent African Cake
    Discussion Question: What kinds of changes instituted by colonial governments (political, economic, and social ones) affected how people produced food and had access to food in Niumi and Magomeru?
  • March 4: Round Table on Independent Readings on Colonial Agricultural Production
    Individual Reading Assignments to be determined
    Read other students' papers before coming to class
    Write a 1-2 page summary of your independent reading, and forward it to all class members by 10:00 am.
    Discussion Question: What patterns are evident in colonial agricultural production? How did people's production of food, and access to food, change as a result of these patterns?
  • March 11: Making Sense of the Loss of Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa
    Berry, 22-100
    Discussion Question: According to Berry, what characteristics of colonial rule influenced farmers access to resources? Why does she label the interaction of farmers and governments "inconclusive encounters"? What kinds of divisions within African societies resulted from colonial forms of production? (N.B.: As Berry presents a complex argument with substantial evidence, you may want to prepare a reading response outline for each chapter).
  • March 18: No Class - Spring Break (begin to read novels)
  • March 25: Policy and the Loss of Food Security
    Berry, 101-180
    Wright, 219-254
    White, 200-259
    Discussion Question: How do issues of land ownership, control of markets and labor, and farmers access to productive resources affect the decisions farmers make? How does Berry's analysis apply to Niumi and Magomeru?
  • April 1: East and West African Examples of Food Entitlement Loss
    Either Ngugi wa Thiongo, Petals of Blood (entire) or Ousman Sembene, God's Bits of Wood (entire)
    Write a carefully constructed 3-4 page paper (it may be longer) applying Berry's analysis of agrarian change to either the Kenyan or Senegalese circumstances described by Ngugi wa Thiongo and Ousman Sembene. N.B. Class meets at 5:30 pm at 6 Stanton Avenue for a West African Dinner. Come early if you want to help cook.
  • April 8: Analyzing African Famine: Malawi in 1949
    Meghan Vaughan, The Story of an African Famine, 1-159
    Discussion Question: Why was there famine in Malawi in 1949? Relate Vaugan's analysis to Berry and Sen.
  • April 15: Women's Access to Resources and 20th century Famine
    Ann Whitehead, "Rural Women and Food Production", Reading Packet
    Berry, 181-200
    Film: "Man Made Famine"
    Discussion Question: According to Whitehead and Berry, how has the work allotted to rural women intensified in recent decades? Why has this happened and what are the consequences? In preparation for the in-class oral final, we will critique the film "Man Made Famine" using Whitehead and Berry.
  • April 22: Analyzing African Famine: Ethiopia and the Sahel in the 1970s
    Amartya Sen, Poverty and Famines, 86-130, Reading Packet
    Discussion Question: What factors contributed to famine in Ethiopia and the Sahel in the 1970s?
  • April 29: What Causes Famine in Africa?
    In Class Oral Final: Critique of the film, "Burden on the Land"
    Film: Burden on the Land
    In preparation for the oral final, write an outline of your understanding of the causes of famine in Africa in the 20th century, including both arguments and evidence you would use to back up your argument.
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