The Imperial Encounter in Africa (AAS 3500-007, the University of Virginia)

This course studies the concept of the “imperial encounter” in Africa—what it involved, who it exploited, and why today we still grapple with its legacies. Over the course of five hundred years, the evolving relationships between Africans and Europeans radically changed the ways that most people on both continents lived their lives. How did this situation come about? When white people met black people on the African continent, what processes and events led this relationship to becoming one of colonial domination? This class analyzes the concept of “the encounter” in the period between 1450 and 1950 using a variety of sources: literature, poems, films, maps, voyagers’ accounts, artwork, and scholarly works by historians. These sources are critically used to interrogate colonialism and imperialism on the African continent in both theory and practice.

The History of West Africa, 1800 to Present (HIST 3455, the University of Minnesota)

This course studies the recent history of West Africa, from the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade to the present-day activities of postcolonial states. Charting the rise and fall of colonial rule, it will interrogate the changing nature of imperialism in Africa, the legacies of colonialism, and the challenges that independence governments faced in a new neocolonial world.A variety of sources will be covered in class: novels, documentaries, poems, photographs, photo essays, scholarly works by historians, and digital essays. Students will be encouraged to develop multimedia projects that interrogate some aspect of West Africa’s recent history as their capstone project.