The course examines the trajectories made by the continent since the end of the colonial domination upto the present “new rush for Africa”. Through a methodology that comprises a variety of sources, students will deepen their knowledge on the recent history of the continent, developing a personal view and understanding to confront the processes that have marked and still characterize the various African regions and ultimately link them to the rest of the worl
All the volumes can be found at the Library of the School of Political Science.
Attending students only will have access to other relevant materials via the Moodle pages of the course.
Learning Objectives
The course will provide students with in-depth knowledge on the roots of contemporary Africa integration in the international arena, focussing on cold-war, post-cold war, and present political strategies.
Abilities acquired at the end of the course: The historical perspective adopted during the course will unable students to situate present African challenges in a long time framework, providing them with consistent analytical tools.
Capacity to apply the knowledge: students will be able to use these new skills while working, in particular, within international organizations, governmental and non-governamental institutions, and media.
Prerequisites
Only students with Bachelor degree can attend the course.
It is desirable (not compulsory) for the students to have basic knowledge on African pre-colonial and colonial history
Teaching Methods
Lectures and workshops on primary and bibliographical sources.
Students attending the lectures will be asked to write and discuss, during the second module, on a specific case study related to the topics analysed during the course. Attending students only will be given access to the Moodle page of the course, where they will find materials related to the issues discussed in class.
Further information
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Type of Assessment
Students attending the course: an oral (or written) exam on the whole course program based on open questions; students attending the course will be asked to work on a specific case study that they will present in class, the oral presentation will add between 1/30 to 3/30 to the final grade. On a voluntary base students may write an essay on their own case study (maximum 10 pages Word format). The active and constant participation in the class is considered an essential requirement in order to get top marks (between 27/30 and 30/30)
Non attending students:
an oral (or written) exam on the whole course program consisting in answering open questions based on the topics presented by the authors of the suggested books.
Course program
Today Africa is experimenting a renewed global interest. All the issues that arise and operate within the continent, being them cultural, economic, political or security related, project themselves at an internal level and reverberate on the relations between Africa and the rest of the world. The image of a marginal and isolated Africa has been definitively superseded. However, the common interpretative instruments used in order to grasp the ongoing processes within the continent seem unfitted because they often focus too much on current events and tune on emergency as the only possible viewpoint.
The course, through an historical perspective, aims to encourage students to reflect about the trajectories made by the continent – divided today into 55 States – since the end of the colonial domination to the present “new rush for Africa”. Through a methodology that comprises a variety of sources – including literature and cinema – students will deepen their knowledge on the recent history of the continent. Through specific case studies they will develop a personal view and understanding that will allow them to confront the plurality of the political, economic and social processes that have marked and still differently characterize the various African regions and ultimately link Africa, or rather the diverse Africas, to the rest of the world.
Key issues that will be discussed are:
• Africa's colonial legacy
• Paths and visions of independence
• The Cold War in Africa in the 1960s: the Congo crisis, 1960-65
• The Cold War in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s: the internationalization of the Angolan civil war and the Southern Africa scenario
• The democracy that never was: Mobutu of Zaire
• The crisis of the 1980s, from economic turmoil to political (and military) conflict; West Africa
• The end of the Cold War: 1994, South Africa and Rwanda
• After the Cold War: new rules new actors
In the second part of the course attending students will be asked to focus, via specific case studies, on the relations between African and non-African countries against the backdrop of the resurgent and contested narrative of the new scramble for Africa.