Course Catalogue

Humanities and Social Science

1. To introduce students to modern African history 2. To develop students’ understanding of colonial rule in Africa 3. To develop students’ understanding of decolonisation in Africa

Outline Syllabus:Pre-colonial Africa; Colonial rule; Colonial economies; Gender in African history; Christianity and Islam in Africa; World War and developmentalism; Decolonisation to 1964; Decolonisation and liberation war; The rise and fall of apartheid;

Module Overview:
The aim of this module is to introduce you to modern African history in order to develop an understanding of colonial rule and decolonisation in Africa.

Additional Information:This module introduces students to the history of sub-Saharan Africa under colonial rule. It is important to emphasise that this is not simply a module about European colonialism. We must indeed understand the agendas and policies of European colonial states in Africa. But it is equally important to understand the character of African responses to those agendas, and the ways in which African ‘agency’ shaped the outcomes of colonial interventions in African societies on the ground. Colonialism was made by Africans at least as much as it was made by Europeans. This module uses a blend of political, social and economic history approaches to understand the way colonial Africa was shaped by these interactions between coloniser and colonised. It also addresses the history of decolonisation in the continent and analyses the differing processes by which independence was achieved across the continent, playing particular attention to the wars of liberation fought in the territories of white settlement in southern Africa right up to the end of apartheid in 1994.