POLI 352 - Redemption and Diplomatic Imagination in Postcolonial Africa

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as AFRS 352) to the cultural, philosophical and political dimensions of estrangement and the mediation practices that accompany the quest for recognition, meaning and material well-being in selected colonial and postcolonial societies. Through a critical treatment of the redemptive vision and diplomatic imaginaries summoned by missionaries, anti-colonial resistance movements and colonial era Pan-Africanists, the seminar interrogates the ‘idea of Africa’ produced by these discourses of redemption and their implications for diplomatic thought in Africa. The insights derived from the interrogation of foundational discourses on African redemption are used to map the transformation of identities, institutional forms, and the minute texture of everyday life in postcolonial Africa. The seminar also engages modern humanitarianism, diasporic religious movements, Non-Governmental Organizations and neoliberal or millennial capitalist networks that seek to save Africans from foreign forces of oppression or ‘themselves.’ Mr. Opondo.

Prerequisite(s): permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.

Courses numbered 310-319 are advanced courses that meet twice a week and are limited to nineteen students. These courses do not require permission of the instructor for sophomores, juniors, and seniors who have taken at least one previous political science course. These courses can meet the requirement for two graded 300-level courses but do not meet the requirement of one 300-level seminar during the senior year. Seminars in the 340s, 350s, 360s, and 370s are generally limited to twelve students and require permission of the instructor. Students taking seminars are expected to have taken relevant course-work at a lower level. The content of seminars can vary from year to year depending upon interests of students and instructors. Seminars might focus on topics too specialized to receive exhaustive treatment in lower-level courses; they might explore particular approaches to the discipline or particular methods of research; they might be concerned with especially difficult problems in political life, or be oriented toward a research project of the instructor. The thesis (POLI 300, POLI 301, POLI 302) and senior independent work (POLI 399) require permission of the instructor.