Fall 2022
Reginold Royston
3 credits
Fulfills Literature, Intermediate
Africa’s growth in prosperity, media footprint, and economic development have been celebrated with projects such as the U.N.’s Decade of the People of African Descent, and Ghana’s Year of Return in 2019. The narrative of ‘Africa Rising’ has been documented in popular media and film, with comparisons to the economic growth of BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the Asian Tigers of the 1990s. What role does popular culture play in this vision of a “New Africa”? How do digital media, diaspora returnees, and transnational actors, musicians and artists contribute to this contemporary African renaissance? What is different about Africa’s socio-economic development and “rise” in the 21st century? This course explores and troubles the narratives of African achievement in the new millennium through literature, film, music, and podcasts exploring history, contemporary research and speculative narratives about what success looks like in Africa in the past 20 years.