Instructor: Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo
Office Hours:
                        Monday: 11:00a.m.-12:00 noon
                        Tuesday: 11:00 a.m-12:00 noon
                        Thursday: 2:00: 00- 5:00 p.m.
Cleveland 108
Telephone: 364-3220

Required Books

-Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Black Africa, New York, Lawrence Hill and Company, 1987.

-Maulana Karenga, Introduction to Black Studies, Los Angeles, California, University of Sankore, 1993.

-Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Political Re-Mapping of Africa:  Transnational Ideology and Re-definition of Africa in World Politics, Lanham, New York, and London, University of America Press, 1994 (on Reserve in the Library).

Recommended Books for further Readings

Opoku Agyeman, Africa’s Persistent Vulnerable Link: Global Politics, New York: iUniversity Press, 2001.

Claude Ake, Social Science as Imperialism, Dakar, Senegal: CODESRIA, 1982.

-Molefi Asante, The Afrocentric Idea, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1987.

-Martin Bernal, Black Athena:  the Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volumes I and II, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1987 and 1991.

-Cheikh Anta Diop, The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality, Westport, CT, 1974.

-Basil Davidson, Discovering Our African Heritage, Boston, Ginn, 1991.

-Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, New York, Grove Press, 1968.

Joseph Harris, Africans and Their History, New York 1972.

-Vincent Bakpetu Bakpetu Thompson, The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas 1441-1900. U.K, Longman, 1987.

-Leo Wiener, with new introduction by Dr. John Henri Clarke, Africa and the Discovery of America, New York, A and B Books Publishers, 1992.

Course Description

Scientific evidences have concluded so far that the first human being (homo-sapiens) was found in Africa.  That is to say that Africa has produced the oldest layers of cultural heritage of human civilization.  In the first part of this class, we will critically discuss various historical, sociological, and political arguments, hypotheses, and perceptions of Africa before slavery and colonialism as developed by Cheikh Anta Diop. We will also discuss how these arguments and perceptions have contributed to define and re-define black people the world over.  In the second part of the class, students will be introduced to the contemporary academic and scholarly debates on the notions of Afrocentrity and black identity, to how black studies programs were developed and incorporated into the academia, and to how those programs relate to the conventional/classical disciplines in the institutions of higher learning.  We will discuss the nature of the contribution of those programs in the learning process at large, and identity and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses within the context and the spirit of liberal arts scholarship.

Methodology

An interdisciplinary perspective will be used in the interpretation of the components of the Africana phenomenon.  A general effort will be made to discuss issues from different interconnected social sciences and humanities paradigms.  However, political science and political philosophy will generally guide both the selection of items to be discussed and their general discussion.

Requirements

-Attendance and active participation in all class activities are required.  They will count for 10 % of the total grade;

-10 points will be deducted from the final grade for any unjustifiable absence.

-A mid-term exam will be given on 3/5, 2002.  It will count for 20 % of the total grade.

-Every student will write a first essay on the assignment below:

Discuss and compare how W. E. DuBois, Angela Davis, and Niara Sudarkasa have perceived and defined Africa and African-America in their writings and their activism; and what role, if any, according to them, Africa as a cultural and historical concept should or should not play in the definition of cultural and political identity of black people in the U.S. and the West Indies?

-The length of the paper is between 7 and 9 pages typed double spaced, including footnotes and bibliography.  It will count for 20 % of the final grade.  The paper is due on 3/14, 2002.

-The second writing assignment:

Discuss and compare Kwame Nkrumah and John Henrik Clarke’s views on the dynamics of political history of Africa in the world and their notion of political unity among the African people the world over.  What is the significance of their views within the context of the world of states and the global politics in which black people are functionally citizens?  What kind of methodology are they proposing in examining social phenomenon from an African perspective?

-The length of the paper is between 7 and 9 pages typed double spaced, including footnotes and bibliography.  It will count for 20 % of the final grade.  The paper is due on 4/23, 2002

-The final exam will be given on May 14, 2002 (7:00p.m.-10:00 p.m.).  It will count for 30 %.

Schedule

1/29-General introduction concerning the course, its requirements and expectations, comments on the texts and other related issues.

2/5-Political Organization and Power of Major Empires in Pre-colonial Africa
 Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Africa, chapters 4 and 5

2/12-Economic Organization in Medieval Africa and Islam and Its Impact
 Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Africa, chapters 6 and 7.

2/19-Education, Technology, and Science in Medieval Africa
 Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Africa,chapters  8 and 9.

2/22-Education, Technology, and Science in Medieval Africa
 Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Africa, chapters  8 and 9.

2/26-Arguments about Massive Migration
 Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Africa, chapter 10.

2/28- Argument about Massive Migration continues

3/5 Mid-Term Exam

3//12-Emerging Medieval Power in Europe
 Cheikh Anta Diop, Pre-Colonial Africa, chapters 2.

SRING HOLIDAY March 16-24

3/26-Video-Basil Davidson  "Different but Equal" and Discussion of chapters 2 and 3 of Pre-Colonial Africa

4/2-Colonial Question, Its Contradictions and Possibilities, and its Influence on Black People
 Lumumba-Kasongo, Political Re-mapping, pp. 40-66.

4/9-Origins of Black Studies, Its relevance and Its scope and Developmental Elements of Black Studies
 a) Concept of Afrocentricity;
 (b) Black women’s studies;
 (c) Multicultural studies and
 ( d) Classical African studies;
 Karenga, pp. 3-20. and pp. 34-66.

4/16- The Dynamics of Black History and The Concept of History
 Karenga, pp. 69-90 and pp. 115-142.

4/23-Black Nationalism and Struggle for New Political and Cultural identity
 Karenga, pp. 151-207.

4/30-Black Politics, Black Economics, and U.S. Capitalism
 Karenga, pp. 311-344 and pp. 355-383.
 

5/7-Conclusion:

Ali Mazrui’s Video Tape on the Global Africa and Pan-Africanism as an intellectual and cultural meeting of the African people, Lumumba-Kasongo, Political Re-mapping, pp. 100-135.

Final Exam:  May 14, (1:00-4:00 p.m.).