African 202: Technology & Orality: Podcasting, Music, and New Media

Digital media has dramatically opened up the possibilities for conveying vital information on the African continent and in diaspora, using portable, ‘anytime’ technologies such as podcasts and mobile phones. Oral culture continues to thrive and innovate in Africa, especially where formal literacy is challenged by multilingualism, language literacy, and the politics of culture. In this course we will examine the unique interplay between writing and spoken language in Africa, and its transformation in the era of digital media. Through a range of disciplines including folklore, sociolinguistics and anthropology, literature, and New Media Studies, we explore modern African oral cultures, especially the use of sound and radio. Students will produce digital audio projects, that involve short papers and analyzing oral texts, increasing their technical and cultural literacy.