TOPICS IN AFRICAN HISTORY: INDEPENDENCE AND NATIONALISM
HIST 4400/5400 (Fall 2015)
Wednesday 9:30-12:30 ֍Instructor: Philip Zachernuk
African Renaissance
Monument, erected 50
years after Senegal’s
independence
Why commemorate African nationalism this way?
Why would Ghanaians be independent, but not yet “beautyful”?
When numerous African states emerged from colonial
rule around 1960 contemporary accounts talked of the
inevitable triumph of the nation state ideal, or of heroic
African nationalists defeating villainous imperialists.
Historians, however, have started to tell the story in
different terms, and to ask more penetrating questions.
What did not end with colonial rule? Did all Africans
want nationalism to triumph? How did feminism
intersect with nationalism? Did nationalism build on or
betray Pan-Africanism? This class explores recent
scholarship, and looks at novels, architecture and art of
the period, to probe these tumultuous decades of
African nationalism and independence more deeply.
Carefully examined, this era tells us much about
Africans’ ongoing quest for development and justice.
Trenchant 1968 novel about
Ghana after Independence
֍
PREREQUISITE: AT LEAST ONE THIRD-YEAR AFRICAN HISTORY
COURSE OR PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR