Module Catalogue 2025/26

Pre Requisite Comment

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Co Requisite Comment

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Aims

This module covers the history of Africa from roughly the dawn of history until the post-colonial period. The module is organized chronologically by region, in order to introduce students to the great diversity of peoples, cultures, and climates that characterize the African continent. In this module, students will learn that Africa was never the “dark continent” that it is often supposed to be. A major focus of the module will be Africa’s engagement with the outside world, including the trans-Saharan trade, Swahili city-states and the Indian Ocean, and Trans-Atlantic trade. The module will stress continuity across time periods in order to highlight the lasting impact of historical processes, especially the slave trade and European colonialism. By privileging interdisciplinary methodologies to recover African voices, ideas, and institutions, students learn how Africans have always been influential historical actors in world history, exploring how they interacted with their neighbors in ways that made sense to them and their communities.
Module Aims:
•       Introduce students to the African past, especially the way in which Africans influenced, and were influenced by global networks of exchange of people, goods, and ideas.
•       Introduce students to multidisciplinary methods and sources used to recover the African past.
•       Explore the challenges of “doing history” by evaluating historical interpretations.
•       Introduce students to crafting their own arguments about the African past.

Outline Of Syllabus

Topics for this course may include:

The Invention of Africa
Human Origins
Invention of Language
Foodways: Farming, Hunter Gatherers, Pastoralists
Diffusion of Iron
Climate
The Bantu Expansion
Nile River Valley Societies – Egypt, Nubia
The Horn of Africa
North Africa in Global History
Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religions
Niger River Valley and the Medieval Empires
Trans-Saharan Trade in Global History
East Africa, Swahili City States, and Indian Ocean Trade
Encounter with Europeans
Dependency, Slavery, and Slave Trades
Southern Africa in Global History
Impact of the Slave Trade on Africa
European Colonialism
Post-Colonial Africa

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

The module has two intended outcomes. The first is to teach students that Africa has a past and help develop knowledge of what that past encompasses, stressing interconnection between Africa and other parts of the globe. Second, students will demonstrate the ability to triangulate between multidisciplinary methods and sources to recover the experiences and ideas of people traditionally excluded from the study of the past. Students will be able to critically evaluate ideas and concepts introduced in the module, and construct their own arguments based on the critical use of evidence.

Intended Skill Outcomes

Through scaffolded written assignments, students will develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.
Develop critical use of evidence including: words, things, genes, and the environment.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Our teaching strategy is based on a flipped classroom. Students are expected to come to class having completed the assigned reading in order to fully participate in active learning, lead by in-classroom activities. Lectures will introduce topics and provide expert orientation and exposition on a broad range of themes and issues, supplemented by the module reading list. In-person lectures will provide opportunities for dialogue.

Seminars are spaces for students to workshop specific case studies, developing the competencies in the multidisciplinary methodologies and analytical skills targeted in the module aims.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

HIS2027 seeks to introduce students to the study of the vast history of Africa, the continent with the longest human history. Because the module covers such a vast amount of material, the first assessment is a Portfolio, which will assess students' familiarity with a broad range of the themes and knowledge areas covered on the module. It will also test their ability to reflect on the methodological challenges posed by various types of primary sources relevant to this subject area.

The essay examines students’ ability to engage critically with historiographical and methodological debates, as well as to write and research independently from a set of thematic essay options. The essay draws on the foundational knowledge established by the Portfolio entries, and students will have the opportunity to workshop their final essays in discussion section during the semester.

Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining student progress. Submitted work tests knowledge outcomes and develops skills in research, reading and writing.

General Notes

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