History 45B/145B

Professor Richard Roberts

Office Hrs: Mon 4-6 and by appt
TA:

Spring 2014-15
Rm. 211, History
723-9179, rroberts@stanford
AFRICA in the 20TH CENTURY:
1870-2000
DRAFT

This course deals with the events and processes leading to the colonization of Africa, the subsequent
changes in African societies under colonial rule, and the meanings and experiences of decolonization. It
is a course about Africans and how they responded to the challenges and opportunities of colonialism
and independence. Throughout this course we will be concerned with African initiatives in a rapidly
changing political, economic, social, and ideological context. Africa in the 20th Century will have five
main themes:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

African patterns of society and development on the eve of colonial conquest.

African reactions to the imposition of colonial rule.
Transformation of African societies during the period of colonial rule.
African responses to the challenges of colonialism and decolonization.
Challenges of decolonization in Africa and the problems of persistent poverty.

We will approach the history of this period in three ways. First, the lectures will present both narrative
and interpretation of the topics under consideration. Second, the readings for each lecture pursue the
topics discussed and often present different interpretations. And third, most of the discussions will
revolve around histories and novels written by Africans. The books used in sections are also required
reading, and they include:
Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease (New York, 1963).
Amadou Hampat Ba, The Fortunes of Wangrin (Bloomington, 1999).
William Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa (New York, 2001).
Frederick Cooper, Africa Since 1940: The Past of the Present (Cambridge, 2002).
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (New York, 1988)
Trevor Getz and Liz Clarke, Abina and the Important Men : A Graphic History (Oxford, 2012)
John Iliffe, The African AIDS Epidemic : A History (Athens, OH, 2006)
Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide
in Rwanda (Princeton, 2002).
All the required books are available at Green Reserves. Students are expected to take part actively in the
section discussions. Selected readings are available in a Reader from Field Copy and Printing (650-3233155). * indicates that readings can be downloaded from JSTOR. For the 5-unit course, students will
have the following requirements:
1) a non-credit map exam, 16 April.
2) a take-home mid-term examination (25% of the final grade), due 5 May.
3) a six to eight page typed essay on colonialism and African responses in one of the
six cases we will address in this course (30% of your final grade): preliminary outline due 14
May. Paper due 8 June.
4) the in-class identifications exam, 2 June (10% of the final grade).
5) a take-home final exam, due XX June (15% of the final grade).
6) participation in the sections (20% of your grade).
7) all work must be submitted on its due date. Late work will be penalized.
For the 3-unit course, students will have the following requirements:

1) a non-credit map exam, 16 April.

2) a take-home mid-term examination (30% of the final grade), due 5 May.
3) either a six to eight page typed essay on colonialism and African responses in one of the
six cases we will address in this course or the two part final exam (in-class identification exam, 2
June, and the take-home exam, due XX June. If the essay is chosen, the preliminary outline is
due 18 May. Paper is due 8 June. Either option is worth 50% of the final grade. Students must
inform the TA in writing by 14 May which option they are choosing.
4) participation in the sections (20% of your grade).
5) all work must be submitted on its due date. Late work will be penalized.
Students with disabilities should (1) register with the Disabilities Resource Center [563 Salvatierra Walk,
Stanford, CA 94305; TEL: 723-1066 (voice), 723-1067 (TTY)]; (2) inform me during the first week of
the existence of the disability (discretion assured).
The following symbols are used in the syllabus: # refers to items on Coursework; * refers to readings in
the course reader; ^ refers to items available online. All readings will also be put on reserve.

Africa in the 20th Century

31 Mar: Introduction to the Course and Legacies of Slave Trade

Africa on the Eve of European Conquest
2 Apr: Crucibles of Change I: West, East, Central Africa
Reading: Martin Klein and Richard Roberts, chapter 1.#
7 Apr: Crucibles of Change II: South Africa
Reading: Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa. Introduction and chapter 1.
Imperialism, Conquest, and Resistance
9 Apr: Scramble for Africa
Reading: Klein and Roberts, chapter 2. #
Section: Crucibles of Change
Readings: Klein and Roberts, chapter 1.#
Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa. Introduction and chapter 1.
14 Apr: Conquest and Resistance
Reading: Terence Ranger, Connections between Primary Resistance
Movements and Modern Mass Nationalism in East and Central Africa,
Journal of African History, 9 (1968), pp. 437-53, 631-41.*
16 Apr: MAP EXAM
16 Apr: Building Colonialism
Reading: Jeffrey Herbst, States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in

Authority and Control, chapter 3.^

Klein and Roberts, chapter 3.#

Section: Conquest and Resistance

Readings: Terence Ranger, Connections

Klein and Roberts, chapter 2.#

The Varieties of Colonial Experiences
21 Apr: World War I and the Articulation of Colonialism
Reading: Terence Ranger, Invention of Tradition in Africa, in Eric Hobsbawm and
Terence Ranger, eds, Invention of Tradition (1983).^
Frederick Lugard, 1918 Political Memoranda; selections, Dual Mandate
in Tropical Africa (1922).
Raymond Buell, The Native Problem in Africa (1928), chapter 60, Native
Policy [in French West Africa]
23 Apr: Economics of Colonialism
Reading: Klein and Roberts, chapter 6.#
Section: Varieties of Colonialism

Readings: Amadou Hampte Ba, The Fortunes of Wangrin

Klein and Roberts, chapters 3- 4

28 Apr: Patterns of Social Change: Urbanization, and New Religions

Reading: Phyllis Martin, Football is King, in Phyllis Martin, Leisure and Society in
Colonial Brazzaville. Available on line through SU library:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb02629
Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa, chapter 4.
Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 2.
30 Apr: Patterns of Social Change: Women and Colonialism
Reading: Misty Bastian, Vultures in the Marketplace: Southeastern Nigerian Women and
the Discourses of Ogu Umunwaanyi (Womens War) of 1929, in Womena in
African Colonial Histories, ed. Jean Allman et al (Bloomington, 2002).
Available as a link from SU libraries:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb04111.
Selections from the 1930 Commission on the 1929 Disturbances.#
Section: Women and Colonialism
Readings: Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions.
Misty Bastian, Vultures in the Marketplace: Southeastern Nigerian Women and
the Discourses of Ogu Umunwaanyi (Womens War) of 1929, in Women in
African Colonial Histories, ed. Jean Allman et al (Bloomington, 2002).
Available as a link from SU libraries:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;idno=heb04111.
Selections from the 1930 Commission on the 1929 Disturbances.#
Paths to Independence
5 May: Depression and Emergent Nationalism: Turning Point of Colonialism
Reading: Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 3
7 May: WWII and Decolonization
Reading: Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 4-5.
Section: Imagining the Future: Patterns and Prospects of Independence
Readings: Frederick Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapters 1-4
12 May: Apartheid, Settler Societies, and the Armed Struggle

Reading: Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa, chapters 6-7, 9-10

Challenges of Independence
14 May: The Political Kingdom First: The Failure of Africas First Wave of Democracy
Readings: Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 5.
Section: Meanings of Independence
Readings: Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease
Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapters 2, 4, 7.
19 May: Civil Wars, Political Instability, and the Cold War
Readings: Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 7.
William Easterly and Ross Levine, Africas Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic
Divisions, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 112 (4), 1997.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2951270.
For an critique, see James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, Ethnicity, Insurgency,
and Civil War, American Political Science Review 97 (1), 2003.^
21 May: Structural Adjustment and Public Health Crisis: HIV/AIDS and Ebola
Readings: Brian C. Zanoni, Epidemiology of HIV in southern Africa, Pediatric Radiology
(2009), 39:538540.^
Section: The AIDS Epidemic
Readings: Iliffe, The African AIDS Epidemic: A History.
Zanoni, Epidemiology of HIV in southern Africa,
26 May: Dismantling Apartheid
Readings: Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa, chapters 11-13.
Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 6.
28 May: Civil Wars, Genocide, and Reconciliation: Africa in the 1990s
Readings: Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers
Allison Corey and Sandra Joireman, Retributive Justice: The Gacaca Courts
in Rwanda, African Affairs, 103 (2004). ^
http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/103/410/73
Section: The Rwandan Genocide and Reconciliation
Readings: Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and
the Genocide in Rwanda
Corey and Joireman, Retributive Justice.
2 June: In-Class Identification Exam
2 June: Emergent Africa and the Problems of Persistent Poverty: Africa in the 21 st Century
Readings: The World Bank, Africa Development Indicators, 2008-9: Youth and Employment
in Africa: The Potential, the Problem, the Promise,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTSTATINAFR/Resources/ADI-200809-essay-EN.pdf
Aidan A. Cronin et al, Quantifying the Burden of Disease Associated with
Inadequate Provision of Water and Sanitation in Selected Sub-Saharan Refugee
Camps, Journal of Water and Health 7 (4), 2009.^
Cooper, Africa since 1940, chapter 8.
Section: Prospects for the Future