AFRS 389 - Armed Avengers of Africa and the Caribbean

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as SOCI 389) The exploitation and subjugation of African peoples by Europe was central to the development of colonial-capitalism on a world-scale. Understanding how this system came into being and was resisted, through the perspectives of peoples of African descent, will be our task. This class offers a world-historical analysis of the anti-slavery and anti-colonial struggles of people of African descent in the Caribbean and Africa. The Haitian Revolution, whose conclusion created the first politically independent African nation-state, the self-defined Black state of Haiti, is an event we spend significant time exploring. From Haiti we then travel across the Atlantic to explore how others on the continent began to mobilize and organize against the growing threat of European colonization during the 19^th century. The second half of the course focuses on the African Liberation struggles of the post-WWII period after Europe’s colonization of Africa was complete with special focus being given to Algeria, Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Mozambique. Attention is also paid to the Black Power movement in the Americas with emphasis being placed on its reverberations in the Caribbean. The politics of the Cold War, in particular Cuba’s role in Africa, is also explored in order to demonstrate the international character of this era that simultaneously opened and restricted the strategies and tactics utilized by various liberation movements. As is customary in my classes, music and documentaries form a central component of how we learn in this class. At the end of the course, it is hoped that we emerge with a better understanding of how our current colonial-capitalist world-system was violently created by Euro-North Americans and simultaneously resisted by the Black avengers of the African and Caribbean world. Toivo Asheeke.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS