The History of Africa
to 1800 Prof. Paul Landau
Meeting at Microbiology (opp. Hornbake Library), rm. 1207.
Sung-era Chinese porcelain has been found buried in the middle of archaeological strata from the 14th centuryÑin Central Africa. (Do you know why?)
Welcome to History 122 (cross listed as AASP 298), Fall, 2005, Mon., Wed., 9:00Ð9:50 & 1 h discussion.
This course is a survey of the history of Africa, from prehistoric times up to the formal abolition of Atlantic slave-dealing. The course ought to prove full of surprises: few of you will have been exposed to the great artistic traditions of Africa, the brass castings and cire perdu, the carved hunter statuary from Central Africa, the hollow-rock churches of Lalibelae. You will also be privy to the newest and best historical findings about ancient and medieval Africa, its peoples and languages, as well as to unresolved areas and debates among historians. We’ll use a book on art and architecture as our spine, and focus especially on the famous indigenous West African epic Sunjata, and end by looking at the history of the parts of Africa that wound up exporting slaves. If you want to follow along, you will leave the course knowing much more about Africa’s early history than newspapers or television, not to mention world history textbooks.
A reader and three paperback books, required, are purchasable at the University Book Center or Maryland Book Exchange:
Peter Garlake, Early Art and Architecture of Africa (OUP, 2002, pbk.), 0192842617.
Bamba Suso and Banna Kanute, Sunjata (Penguin Classics, 1999, pbk.), 0140447369.
Randy Sparks, The Two Princes of Calabar (Harvard Univ. Press, 2004), 0674013123.
and at College Copy/Print Center the packet, “HIST 122/LANDAU,”containing four short readings, available as of 8/29/05, across the main street (Rt. 1/Balt. Ave.) from the mall, below the salon. Pre-made copies can be picked up, but latecomers will have to order and then return for theirs.
Numerical Breakdown of Requirements:
The exams are 60% of your grade: any surprise quizzes (5%), a mid-term (25%), and a final (30%, but 35% if no quizzes). Exams are written by the professor from the course material, lectures, and readings. For your sections, expect short, pleasant writing assignments targeted toward the readings, to be designed by your T.A. (Only one topic now appears in the syllabus, Sunjata; there will be at least three others.) Those essays, along with your participation as a discussant and inquirer in your own group will be 30% of your grade. The remaining 10% is your Professor’s direct contribution: comprising three grades, for your general attendance at my lectures (a 5% margin); your improvement or decline, and your apparent efforts at constructively engaging the material in class and in assignments (5%).
On the next page the readings for the course appear in the order of their assignment. Their letters, A-M, appear on the syllabus, and in the course packet. Note that a few readings are OPTIONAL, to be done in the Reserve Room at McKeldin, a trip to our library being needed; and three letters refer to our pbk. books (see above). Some of the early assignments may be accessible on-line via this website (if there are links below).
Readings:
A OPTIONAL John Edward Philips, Writing African History (Univ. of Rochester Press, 2005), esp. ch. 2, McIntosh; ch. 3 (Ehret), ch. 6 (Henige), ch. 8 (Hunwick), on reserve at McKeldin.
B Merick Posnansky, “Anatomy of a Continent,” from Ali Mazrui, et. al., eds., The Africans: A Reader (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1986), pp. 31-48, on line
C from Bruno Haliqua and Bernard Ziskind, Medicine in the Days of the Pharoahs (Oxford: OUP, 2001), on line via syllabus
D Book: Garlake, Early Art and Architecture
E from “Wealth,” by Stephen Ellis and Gerrie Ter Haar, in Worlds of Power: Religious Thought and Political Practice in Africa (OUP, 2004), pp. 114-127, on line: http://www.lib.umd.edu/eres/Landau/doc008.pdf
F Book: Garlake, Early Art, first chapter 6, then chapter 5.
G Book: Suso and Kanute, Sunjata, all
H OPTIONAL Jan Vansina, How Societies are Born: Governance in West-Central Africa before 1600 (Charlottesville, VA: U. of Virginia Press, 2004), on reserve at McKeldin.
I Book: Garlake, ch. 7
J Ibn Batuta, “Selected travels in West Africa (753 AH, 1352 AD),” on line via Course Reserves/McKeldin
K Book: Garlake, ch. 8
L OPTIONAL Jean Chretien, The Great Lakes of Africa: 2000 Years of History (Boston, MA: MIT, 2002), on reserve at McKeldin.
M Book: Randy Sparks, The Two Princes of Calabar.
The readings are considered preparations you do before coming to lectures. All material assigned for the week is supposed to be read by Monday morning. I’ve put in two notes to help with deadlines, and you may go back to a reading for further perusal before your section meeting time.
Schedule:
Part 1: Africa and Antiquity
Week 1. Wed. Aug. 31: Contested Legacy
Hand-out: map/outline map
Week 2. Maps, Tables and Peoples
Readings: A (OPTIONAL), B (required: on line, and in packet)
Mon. Labor Day: No Class
Wed., Sept. 7: Geography, Periodicity, and Prehistory
Week 3. Africa and the Ancient World
Readings: C Medicine in the time of Pharaohs,
D (ch. 2)
Period to read: the weekend of 9/9 to 9/11, or early am. 9/12.
Monday: Sept. 12: The Grasslands of a Wet Sahara
Wed.: Sept. 14: Egypt, Nubia
Week 4: Into the 1st. Millennium
Readings: D (ch. 3, ch. 4) period to read: the weekend of 9/16-9/18, or early am. 9/19.
Monday, Sept. 19: Early African Christianity and literacy
Wednesday, Sept. 21: Meroe and Ethiopia
Part 2: Societies South of the Sahara
Week 5: Values and Skills
Readings: E , F (ch. 6. Note.)
Monday, Sept. 26: The Iron Age in Southern Africa
Wednesday, Sept. 28 Health, Wealth, and Authority
(E: http://www.lib.umd.edu/eres/Landau/doc008.pdf)
Week 6: The Urban Tradition of West Africa
Readings: F (ch. 5. Note)
Monday, Oct. 3: The World(s) of Jenne-Jeno
Wednesday, Oct. 5. Polities: Ghana and Mali?
Week 7: Oct. 4, 6: African Epics and History
Readings: G (both versions)
Monday, Oct. 10:Senegambia/Gonja and Mali . . . Mande
Wednesday, Oct. 12: Epic of Soundiata, Sunjata, Sun Jara
(Writing assignment due on Sundiata)
Week 8: West-Central Africa, ca. 500 ADÐ1300
Readings: H (OPT.)
Monday, Oct. 17th: Prequel: Rise of the Farmers (Bantu differentiation)
Wednesday, Oct. 19th: Inventions of governance
Week 9: The East-Central-South, ca. 500 ADÐ1400
Readings: I (ch. 7)
Monday, Oct. 24: Cattle, gold, and Chinese ceramic
Wednesday, Oct. 26th: MIDTERM EXAM
Week 10: Islam, Africa and the World
Readings: J, K (ch. 8)
Monday, Oct. 31: Muslim Africa (Sudanic)
Wednesday, Nov. 2nd: Muslim Africa (East)
Week 11: The Great Lakes Kingdoms
Readings: L (OPT.)
Monday, Nov. 7th: Forest peoples
Wednesday, Nov. 9.: Rwanda and legacies of inequality
Part 3: Africa and the Atlantic, 1400Ð1800
Week 12: The turn westward
Readings: M: Prologue, and chapter 1.
Monday, Nov. 14: Kongo/Angola: the internal production of servitude
Wednesday, Nov. 16: Jihads and food revolutions: early effects
Week 14: Rise of new states
Readings: M: chapter 2
Nov. 28th: Expansive polities: Danhome and Whydah
Nov. 30th: Expansive polities: Asante (Ashanti) and Samori’s state
Week 13: Slavery
Readings: M: chapter 3 and chapter 4.
Monday, Nov. 21: Saramaka and other maroons: Africans abroad
Wednesday, Nov. 23rd: Diasporic identity and Africa
Week 15 : The Humanitarian prelude
Readings: M: chapter 5 and chapter 6.
Dec. 5th: 18th c. missionaries and settlers, W. and S. Africa
Dec. 7th: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and European anti-slavery
Week 16: Dec. 13: Review