African 100: Introduction to African Cultural Expression

Course Objectives

1. To gain an overview of the diverse methods, i.e., textual analysis, film criticism, ethnomusicology, discourse analysis, and ethnography, used by scholars in African Cultural Studies.

2. To develop an understanding of the cultural diversity of Africa and its Diaspora cultures.

3. To promote an appreciation of the many theories and theoretical concepts such as cultural circulation, colonialism, neoliberalism, religion, aesthetics, race, and indigeneity that can be used to analyze Africa and the African Diaspora as cultural fields.

This course consists of three 50-minute sessions per week and provides direct instruction through student-instructor discussions, student oral presentations, and feedback on written work, including Canvas responses, a midterm exam, and a final exam. The course also features lectures by ACS faculty and advanced graduate students, who will present introductory overviews of their research areas and the subdisciplines they are associated with. Students are expected to come to class having completed the assigned readings or watched the required videos and should be prepared to share their thoughts.

1. “Inventions of Africa: How to Write About Africa?

2. Visual Art and Political Resistance in the Streets of Egypt

3. Music and Politics in Late Colonial Angola

4. African Oral Tradition and the Emergence of “Modern African Literature

5. African Theatre and Postcolonial Disillusionment

6. African Feminist Writing and Movements

7. Early African Film and the African Body

8. Nollywood

9. Racial and Musical Identities in South Africa

10. Africa on Display