B008875 - HISTORY AND POLITICS OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

Italian

Through an historical analysis of the transformations occurred since the first independences in the Sixties, the course will examine how African diplomacy and, in general, African political leaderships have been able to develop issues, languages and strategies in order to build relations with external partners (often a peculiar instrument for the preservation of power) and to develop a still difficult inter-African dialogue.

Frederick Cooper, Africa since 1940: The past of the Present, Cambridge, U.K. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2002, 216 pp.; Anna Maria Gentili, Il leone e il cacciatore, Roma, Carocci, 2008, introduzione e cap. IV.; Mario Zamponi; Arrigo Pallotti, L'Africa sub-sahariana nella politica internazionale, Firenze, Le Monnier, 2011

The course will provide students with in-depth knowledge on the most recent African historiography and on the most relevant issues concerning the examined countries and regions. They will be able to autonomously analyze historical sources and put forward original research hypotheses, both in written and oral form.

It is desirable (not compulsory) for the students to have studied the History of Africa (laurea triennale)

Lectures and workshops on primary and bibliographical sources in Italian as well as in foreign languages (mainly French and English)

Students attending the lectures will be asked to write and discuss on a specific case study related to the topics analysed during the second module plus an oral exam on the issues studied during the first module.
Students that do not attend lectures will be asked to pass an oral exam on the basis of the advised textbooks.

The African continent is recently getting new international relevance. New and old actors show an interest that aims not only to the control of natural resources abundant in many African countries, but also to frame new political partnerships. Not surprisingly, the most important African multilateral organizations and the most influential African think-tanks are questioning whether and how Africa – and some African countries in particular – are responding and will be able to respond to this new call. Will African governments and institutions, especially of those States that aim at playing a relevant role on the continental and international scene (South Africa and Nigeria for example), have the right instruments to assert themselves along the global processes that globally shed their influence?
Through an historical analysis of the transformations occurred since the first independences in the Sixties, the course will examine how African diplomacy and, in general, African political leaderships have been able to develop issues, languages and strategies in order to build relations with external partners (often a peculiar instrument for the preservation of power) and to develop a still difficult inter-African dialogue.
Students who will attend the lectures will be asked, in the second part of the course, to work on personal presentations of single case studies, on the basis of the interpretive keys proposed during the first module.