Contemporary African Lives

Course Description

What do you think when you hear AFRICA? This course goes beyond the words, images and stereotypes that we typically learn from western news reports, popular media and mainstream descriptions of issues on the continent. Our goal will be to examine, and challenge, many of the popular portrayals of Africa, and thus build a more realistic and grounded understanding of the region. We will consider issues of geography, social organization and family life, health and food security, economy and ecology, and politics and identity. But our examination will draw from African sources and people living on the continent, as well as media built on long term engagement with the multitude of African nations. We will investigate how social, economic and global systems come together to produce the diversity of lives across the vast region. We will also discover positive, hopeful and sustainable aspects of African life with attention to local people’s solutions and efforts to build the lives they want. Ultimately, we will come away with both better understanding of the complex reality of “Africa”, and with analytical tools for examining other complex, but often stereotyped, issues in society more broadly. Prereq: Sophomore standing or higher. (Same as ANT 326.)

Code

AAS 326

Credits

3

Subject

African American Studies

Programs That Include This Course

• Bachelor's Bachelor of Arts in African American and Africana Studies
• Bachelor's Bachelor of Arts in Environmental and Sustainability Studies
• Minor Minor in Professional and Technical Writing