This course serves as the introductory offering in Africana Studies. It explores, in an interdisciplinary fashion, salient aspects of the Black experience, both ancient and modern, and at the local, national and international levels. This course provides an overview of many related themes, including slavery, Africanisms, gender, colonialism, civil rights, and pan-African exchange.

This course examines the development of the Black Church and the complexities of black religious life in the United States. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course explores the religious life of African Americans from twin perspectives: 1) historical, theological dimensions, and 2) the cultural expression, particularly music and art. Special emphasis will be placed on gospel music, Womanist and Black Liberation theologies as forms of political action and responses to interpretations of race in the context of American religious pluralism.

Why is it that although the majority of cocoa is grown in Africa the most expensive chocolate is made in Europe? Why is it that the average cocoa farmer lives in poverty or earns just $2,000/year when the wealthiest chocolate and candy families are worth more than $10 billion? During the course of this semester, we will study the supply chain from natural resource extraction to final project and investigate the politics that allow for inequalities as well as the progress that has been made. Therefore, this course will examine the sociohistorical legacy of chocolate, with a delicious emphasis on the eating and appreciation of the so-called “food of the gods.” Interdisciplinary course readings will introduce the history of cacao cultivation, the present-day state of the global chocolate industry, the diverse cultural constructions surrounding chocolate, and the implications for chocolate’s future in terms of scientific study, international politics, alternative trade models, and the food movement. Assignments will address pressing real-world questions related to chocolate consumption, social justice, responsible development, honesty and the politics of representation in production and marketing, hierarchies of quality, and myths of purity.

What is a dialect and who speaks one? Why are some ways of speaking English stigmatized while others are barely noticed? This course explores the dialect diversity that exists in American English and unpacks stereotypes around use of non-standard dialects by showing their rich complexity and deep historical roots. While our case study focus will be on the second most spoken dialect of American English, African American English, we will also discuss dialects like Chicano English, Appalachian English, and others. Throughout the semester, we will examine the linguistic features and usage practices of these English varieties. We will also spend time discussing theories on the origins and development of African American English, its importance to linguistic theory, and its representation in American culture through engagement with the documentary series Talking Black in America.

With readings, documentary films, discussions, and lectures, this course will examine the complex spiritual beliefs and expressions of peoples of African descent in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and North America. The course surveys African diasporic religions such as Candomble, Santeria, Voodoo, Shango, and African American religions. Attention will be paid to how diasporic Africans practice religion for self-definition, community building, and sociocultural critique, and for reshaping the religious and cultural landscapes of the Americas.

Rooted in Afro-centric principles, the course explores the foundations of Black Pedagogies and examines the ingenious ways enslaved Africans and their progeny tapped into their sacred cosmologies, wisdom and memories, and devised emancipatory strategies of learning and passing on information during the period of enslavement and its aftermath. Through the enactment of violent slave codes and anti-literacy legislation, enslaved Africans were prohibited to read and/or write in the language of the enslaver-colonizer. Moreover, they were not allowed to freely access or openly express an education that reflected their dynamic history or heritage, which was later enforced by discriminatory Jim Crow and colonial laws. In this way, the course dismantles the intended-ills and history of Western Eurocentric curricula, religious instruction, and media. It unearths and underscores Black pedagogical tools, intellectualism, institutions, and creative expressions as redemptive, remedial, and inclusive pathways for diversifying and humanizing the education curriculum. We will peruse the wide breadth of languages and cultural modes of knowledge production and transmission that emerged during the harrowing passages of the trans-Atlantic trade of captured Africans and their subsequent enslavement and oppression in the Americas. Central themes and areas of study include: the praxis of love, sacred science, oral and literary traditions, memory, storytelling, nature and communal engagement, community, quilt-making, food-ways, dress, art and artifacts, religion, ritual, trauma, resilience, black talk/black text, interjections, body language/gesticulations, theatre, music, dance, genealogy, ancestral reverence, graveyards, schools, and other sites of knowledge creation, expression, and preservation. The course will be aided by a wealth of lively and interactive lectures, discussions, documentaries, literature, works of art, oral tradition and first-hand testimonies.

This course is designed to examine the meaning of race and ethnicity and the determinants and fluidity of membership in a particular racial or ethnic group. We will also explore different ways to measure ethnic and racial identification and how ethnicity affects attitudes, economic development, social mobilization and migration. We will seek to assess to what extent ethnic and racial identities shape trust and prejudice, and examine the impact of ethnic diversity on development and the provision of public goods. Analyses will be made of ethnic and racial electoral politics and the varying extent and impact of ethnic voting patterns in relation to democratic governance and ethnic conflict.

This course explores the historical landscape of Ancient Africa, with specific emphasis on its founding civilizations, politics, trade & commerce, culture and cosmologies. It serves to dispel the myth that the African continent was ahistorical, “dark” and primitive before European invasion in the 1400s. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course encourages students to critically engage Africa from an Afro-centric perspective by examining its ancient kingdoms such as Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Songhay and Great Zimbabwe. It is anticipated that by studying these early civilizations and cultural formations, students will see Africa’s contribution and engagement in the global exchange of ideas and goods. Major themes include the political, economic and social impacts of European imperialism; the Atlantic Slave Trade; ‘Legitimate Trade’ and prelude to colonialism.

This course is conducted in English and will introduce students to the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world through selected films, music and readings. In this interdisciplinary course, we will explore how filmmakers, musicians and writers respond to social and political changes in Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Mozambique and Portugal. Topics covered include colonialism; postcolonialism; wars of independence in Africa; Brazil’s military dictatorship; Portugal´s New State dictatorship; evolving national identities; and representations of trauma and memory. Readings are in English and films have subtitles.

This is an exploration of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement of African American literature and culture of the early twentieth century, which encompassed all major art forms, including poetry, fiction, and drama, as well as music, the visual arts, cabaret, and political commentary. This movement corresponds with the publication of The New Negro anthology (1925). Literary authors we will study may include Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, and Richard Bruce Nugent. We will also enter into contemporary debates about “the color line” in this period of American history, reading some earlier work by W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, or James Weldon Johnson, in the context of early Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Jazz Age, and transatlantic Modernism. Fulfills the Diversity of Literatures in English requirement

The ongoing global pandemic and elections have revived conversations on race and the marginalization of the Black Diaspora. In this course, we will engage with the various ways in which black people practice politics in Africa and elsewhere in the diaspora. We will pay special attention to the ongoing impact of national politics on the global pandemic. Scholars taking the course will each week respond to a reading by writing public facing work such as blogs, editorials and/or opinion pieces, and other forms of public writing. A primary goal in this course is to learn how to bring academic arguments to the general public.

In 2015 a global movement began at the University of Cape Town to decolonize education, research, and tackle institutional racism in academia. This course gives students an introductory engagement of decolonial research practices. Decolonizing research and knowledge means to center the concerns and perspectives of non-Western individuals on theory and research. Thus, this course will be a process of “unlearning” social and scientific standards that we have taken as universal, resisting coloniality in academic production of knowledge, and moving research into action. This course will broadly discuss research methods and praxis in social sciences and in public health/medicine.