January 31: Introduction
Guest Presentation, Professor Roland Abiodun -- Nigerian Culture
in Transition
Dance Class: Soukous |
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February 7: Useful and not useful concepts for studying
Africa
Map Quiz: names and locations of nations and capital cities
Video: "A great tree has fallen," Robert Lang, producer,
and " The dancing church" by Thomas A. Kane.
Reading:
RIAPC, Karin Barber, "Introduction," 1-11,
RIAPC, Johannes Fabian, "Popular Culture in Africa: Findings
and Conjectures," 18-28.
Africa, Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O'Meara, "Africa:
Problems and Perspectives," 3-9.
Africa, Dele Jegede, "Popular Culture in Urban Africa,",
273-294.
Africa, Michael L. McNulty, "The Contemporary Map of Africa,"
10-36.
CP, African Policy Information Center, "Talking about 'tribe'."
1-8.
CP, Map of African nations and capital cities, to prepare for
the map quiz.
Reading Response Questions: What evidence do these authors provide
to
disprove a traditional/modern dichotomy? What commonalities does
Fabian
perceive in Shaba song, religious doctrine, and painting? |
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February 14: The historical context - economic and social
transformation
in African societies since 1880
Video: "This magnificent African cake," Basil Davidson,
producer.
Lecture: "Beni, SAPEUR, and Soukous: Cultural Explorations
of Colonial Power"
Reading:
Africa, Sara Berry, "Economic Change in Contemporary Africa,"
359-374.
CP, Emmanuel Akyeampong, "What's in a Drink? Class Struggle,
Popular Culture, and the Politics of Akpeteshie (Local Gin) in
Ghana,
1930-1967,"Journal of African History 37 (1996) 215-236.
Africa, John C. McCall, "Social Organization in Africa,"
175-189.
Africa, Claire Robertson, "Social Change in Contemporary
Africa,", 313-316 only.
CP, Cyprian Ekwensi, Lokotown and other stories, (1966) 45-51,
87-106.
RRQ: Make a comprehensive timeline of the changes in African
economies and societies discussed by Berry. Then chart the significant
transitions in Akyeampong's description of akpeteshie in Ghana
on your timeline. Finally,
add the processes of change described by McCall and Robertson,
if they are not already there. Do this carefully - you will refer
to it all
semester. What images is Ekwensi using to convey the experience
of Nigerian society shortly after the end of colonial rule?
Recommended Listening #1 |
February 16: Please attend the Drummers of West Africa
Concert, Fine Arts
Center Concert Hall, University of Massachusetts, 7:30 pm. (Student
tickets $9, $7, or $5). |
February 21: Vocabularies for African Music and Art
Lecture and Demonstration, Jennifer Kyker: Mbira Music of
Zimbabwe
Video: "In and Out of Africa"
Reading:
RIAPC: Leroy Vail , Landeg White, "Plantation Protest: The
History of a Mozambican Song," 54-63.
Africa, Ruth M. Stone, "African Music Performed," 257-272.
RIAPC, C.A. Waterman, "Our Tradition is a Very Modern Tradition...",
48-53.
RIAPC, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, "Painting in Zaire," 99-110.
website: http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/chapters/KML.html
- explore
this, also the snapshots and current Malian art pages of the
site.
Africa, Patrick R. McNaughton and Diane Pelrine, "African
Art," 223-256. (skim)
RRQ: Why do people in Mozambique still perform a song about Paiva?
What
continuities stand out for you in the descriptions of African
music in
these readings? According to Jewsiewicki, what are Zairois painters
and
purchasers of paintings saying about themselves and society?
Recommended Listening #2 |
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February 28: Congo/Zaire in the Art of Tshibumba Kanda
Matalu
Film: "La Vie est Belle" (Life is Rosy), Lamy Films.
Reading:
Johannes Fabian and Tshibumba Kanda Matalu, Remembering the
Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire, 17-184. Use the
map on p. xii.
optional: Bogumil Jewsiewicki with contributions from Dibwe dia
Mwembu et al, A Congo Chronicle: Patrice Lumumba in Urban Art,
on reserve.
Use Library Reference works (encyclopedia or almanac) on Congo/Zaire
if you feel you need them.
Paper: Write a 3-5 page paper on an aspect of the message in
Tshibumba
Kanda Matalu's art. Your paper should focus on a limited number
of specific paintings, and clearly identify the paintings you
discuss. This
paper is due at 7:00 pm and late papers will not be accepted.
Please attend Africa/Caribbean Day on March 4, including the
dance party. |
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March 6: Gender Tension as an Expression of Social Stress
Guest Lecture: Professor Katwiwe Mule, "Women in East
African Drama".
Reading:
RAIPC, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "Women in Cultural Work: The Fate
of Kamiriithu
People's Theatre in Kenya," 131-138.
CP, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ngugi wa Mirii, I Will Marry When I
Want, 3-116.
Africa, Claire Robertson, "Social Change in Contemporary
Africa," 316-329.
CP, Nimrod Asante-Darko and Sjaak van der Geest, "Male Chauvinism:
Men and
Women in Ghanaian Highlife Songs," in Christine Oppong,
ed., Female and
Male in West Africa, 243-255. recommended, not required:
RAIPC, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, "Images of Women in Nigerian
Television," 125-131. (skim) RAIPC, Jane Bryce, "Women
and Modern African Popular Fiction," 118-125.
RRQ: How are the lives and actions of women in these songs, stories,
and plays being used to explain or portray problems in the author's
society? What is the explanation of what is wrong with Kenya
suggested by Ngugi wa Thiong'o and his collaborators in I Will
Marry When I Want?
Recommended Listening #3. |
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March 20: State Power and the Realm of People's Action
Lecture: The Use of the Arts to Legitimize Post-colonial
States
Film, "Xala," by Ousmane Sembene
Reading:
CP, Larry Diamond, "Class Formation in the Swollen African
State," Journal
of Modern African Studies 25 (1987), 567-596.
CP, Sarkin Taushin Sarkin Katsina, "Nigeria Protects the
Truth," in
Fremont E. Besmer, "An Hausa Song From Katsina," Ethnomusicology
14:3 (1970), 437-437.
CP, Achille Mbembe, "Power and Obscenity in the Post-Colonial
Period: The
Case of Cameroon," in James Manor, ed., Rethinking Third
World Politics, 166-182.
recommended, not required:
RAIPC, Mamadou Diawara, "Mande Oral Popular Culture Revisted
by the
Electronic Media," 40-48.
RRQ: According to Diamond, how did the structure of colonial
states affect
independent African states? Why does Mbembe describe power in
Cameroon as
obscene? (nb- the answer is not obvious).
How does Sarkin Taushin Sarkin Tatsina's song show an artist
upholding state power? |
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March 27: Music and Moral Compass
Songs and Lyrics
(bring CDs with lyrics on powerpoint or overheads to share in
class)
Reading
CP, Richard Sandbrook, "The State and Economic Stagnation
in Tropical
Africa," World Development 14:3 (1986), 319-332.
RAIPC, Werner Graebner, "Whose Music? The Songs of Remmy
Ongala and the
Orchestra Super Matimila," 110-117.
Find African musicians' lyrics on the
Web: http://www.unf.edu/~joht0001/links.html
.
recommended for CST majors, advanced African studies students,
and masochists:
RAIPC, Achille Mbembe, "The 'Thing' and its Doubles in Cameroonian
Cartoons," 151-163. (nb. this is a complex essay. Read it
once, think
about it, then read it again, very deliberately.)
RRQ: According to Sandbrook, what are the economic affects of
one-person
rule? What is the message in Ongala's music?
Recommended Listening #4
3-5 page paper exploring the social criticism in the lyrics
of African
musicians is due outside my office, 314 Skinner, at 5:00 pm on
Friday,
March 31. You may write about one musician, or explore a theme
in the
songs of several musicians. Be sure to provide an appendix with
lyrics of
all the songs that you discuss, connect the musicians to the
particular
society or societies in which they live, and provide proper citations
for
all your sources of information. |
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April 3: Nigerians Respond to Oil Wealth
Lecture: Selfishness as Evil in African Systems of Thought
Video: Life with Bisi, Ken Saro-Wiwa
Reading:
CP, Michael Watts, "The Shock of Modernity: Petroleum, Protest,
and Fast
Capitalism in an Industrializing Society," in Allan Pred
and Michael John
Watts, Reworking Modernity: Capitalisms and Symbolic Discontent,
21-58. (pay attention to oil wealth and Nigerians, skim or skip
the theory)
RAIPC, Karin Barber, "Popular Reactions to the Petro-Naira,"
91-98.
CP, Misty L. Bastian, "'Bloodhounds Who Have No Friends':
Witchcraft and
Locality in the Nigerian Popular Press," in Jean Comaroff
and John
Comaroff, eds., Modernity and Its Malcontents:Ritual and Power
in Postcolonial Africa, 129-166.
CP, Ken Saro-Wiwa, A Forest of Flowers: Short Stories, 1-25,
54-63, 88-119. Use the glossary, p. 154.
RRQ: Before doing this reading, locate Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo and
the Rivers areas of Nigeria on a map.
How did Nigerians perceive the fabulous wealth generated by
high petroleum prices?
What are the moral dimensions of the irresponse in the various
regions of the nation? |
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April 10: Structural Adjustment, Extremes of Wealth
and Poverty, and the Social Fabric
Film: "Hyenas," Djibril Diop Mambety.(class discussion
following film)
Reading:
RIAPC, Ropo Sokoni, "Politics and Urban Folklore in Nigeria,"
142-146.
RIAPC, Olatunde Bayo Lawuyi, "The World of the Yoruba Taxi
Driver: An
Interpretative Approach to Vehicle Slogans," 146-151.
Africa, Richard Stryker and Stephen N. Ndegwa, "The African
Development Crisis," 375-394.
CP, "Africa Policy Information Center, "Changing Africa:
A Human Development Overview," 1-16.
CP, Jean-Francois Bayart, The State in Africa, 87-103.
web site: http://www.jubilee2000uk.org/main.html
RRQ: According to these authors, what things have to change for
poor
Africans to have the possibility of greater well-being? (nb -
they do not
all agree). |
April 17: Popular Culture Responses to AIDS in Africa
Lecture: AIDS in Africa
Video Clips: "Neria" and "Everyone's Child",
Tsitsi Dangarembga, director.
Reading:
Africa, Takyiwaa Manuh, "Law and Society in Contemporary
Africa," 330-343.
CP, Brooke Grundfest Schoepf, "Health, Gender Relations,
and Poverty in
the AIDS Era," in Kathleen Sheldon, ed., Courtyards, Markets,
City
Streets: Urban Women in Africa, 153-168.
CP, Caroline Bledsoe, "The Politics of AIDS, Condoms, and
Heterosexual
Relations in Africa: Recent Evidence from the Local Print Media,"
in
W. Penn Handwerker, ed., Births and Power: Social Change and
the Politics of Reproduction, 197-223.
web sites: TBA
RRQ: How is the spread of AIDS in Africa related to women's status
relative to men's? How is it related to the place of African
nations in
the world economy? How do you think high death rates from AIDS
are
affecting the legal constraints for women that Manuh describes? |