Course Description : From the anti-colonial accounts of the proponents of Negritude to the postcolonial endeavors of contemporary africanist scholars,

the historiography of Francophone African studies has gone through multiple epistemic changes that make it one of the most complex and vibrant academic disciplines of our time. In this course, we will undertake an assessment of the major formulations of these discourses through a genealogy of its major epistemic shifts, in order to evaluate the actual state and predict the future trajectories of colonial and postcolonial Franocphone African studies. We will start our journey with the examination of the ways Negritude scholars such as Aimee Ceesaire mark a radical shift from earlier francophone intellectual movements attempts to show the perfectibility of African descended cultures in order to prove their humanity. Its major thinkers theorize a negro humanity, fundamentally opposed to the universalist, yet provincial, modern representation of humanness. However, while early theories of Negritude such as those of Aim Csaire have clear anti-colonial postulations, they develop, as Franz Fanons oeuvre shows, an essentialist ethno-centric conception of Africa that functions as a blackened re-articulation of modern modes of definition of the world. As such, Negritude fails to take into consideration the fundamentally political nature of black subjectivities. Franz Fanon prepares the ground for the development, in the 1980s, of what is today referred to as postcolonial African studies, the examination of which will constitute the third movement of our journey. We will, therefore look at the ways African scholars such as Anthony Appiah and Vincent Mudimbe, acknowledge the importance of early discourses on Africa, yet insist on the necessity to think of Africa beyond the dichotomy set by Western imperialist accounts. Such a perspective will lead to a better understanding of our contemporary condition beyond the idea of Africa invented by European modernity and early anti-colonial thinkers. We will conclude the course with two major intellectual movements, namely, the movement of Antillanit inspired by Edouard Glissant and the one of decoloniality as theorized by Mignolo. The former questions any idea of purity as the foundation of Africanness. For Glissant, for example, it is precisely because human cultures are constantly becoming that the only way of understanding the present Caribbean cultures is to acknowledge their fundamental and ongoing mtissages in what can today be called, le tout-monde, a mixed world that finds its condition of possibility in its plurality. For the decolonial movement, on the other hand, it is necessary that formerly colonized people actualize a radical liberation from Western colonial paradigms that have constituted the conditions of their existence. Even though the decolonial movement is mostely .. by Latin American thinkers, it can be applied to the African realities and is very likely to be of African studies in the years to come. Requirements: Weekly written response: Each student is required to turn in a written response (at least one full, double-spaced page) to the weekly assigned readings. In addition, students are required to bring interesting questions related to each week s reading. Responses are due at the beginning of each class. Late versions are not acceptable.

Presentation: Each student is expected to do at least one oral presentation of a reading. Mini conference: We will organize, at the end of the quarter, a mini-conference with students in African Studies The best four papers of the two seminars will be accepted for presentation at the 17th international conference of the International Society of African Philosophy and Studies, organized by the Department of French and Italian and the Department of African Studies at The Ohio State University. For more information, please visit www.isapsonline.com or contact Dr. Cheikh Thiam (thiam.5@osu.edu). Attendance: Anyone who has more than two unexcused absences will automatically fail this course. Two tardies count for one absence. Final Paper: A 12-page research paper is due the last day of class. Grading: Your final grade will be calculated according to the following breakdown: Weekly responses 15% Presentation 10% Mini conference 15% Final paper 60% Weekly Schedule January 4 : Introduction

January 11: Ngritude et pense anti-coloniale Aim Csaire Discours sur le colonialisme Cahier d un retour au pays natal January 18: La Ngritude au del de la Ngritude Franz Fanon Les damns de la terre, Slection, TBA Peau Noire Masques Blancs, Slection, TBA January 25: De la thorie postcoloniale Homi Bhabha Race, Time, and the Revision of Modernity Gayatri Spivak Can the Subaltern Speak ? February 1: Thorie postcoloniale et africanismes Vincent Mudimbe The Invention of Africa

Vincent Mudimbe The Idea of Africa February 8: Anthony Appiah In My Father s House February 15: Edouard Glissant Potique de la relation February 22: Antillanit Mignolo February 29: Mtissages Mini-conference March 7: Mini-conference Lits of books Vincent Mudimbe The Invention of Africa Vincent Mudimbe The Idea of Africa Anthony Appiah In My Father s House Edouard Glissant Potique de la relation