HST 116 - Introduction to History: Pop Culture & Politics: Africa

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirement HU.
This course centers on the role of popular culture in modern Africa and how different avenues of expression and consumption reflect and engage in discussions of globalization, politics, diplomacy, and change on a global stage. Specifically, this course focuses on the changing nature of the continent of Africa as it relates to larger global issues from approximately 1800 to the present. Throughout the semester, we will delve into continuity and change in Africa, but also how African individuals and communities respond to popular culture as a space of leisure and activism. Thus, this course will address oral traditions, music, art, dance, literature, and dress as a way of exploring African expression, colonialism, decolonization, neocolonialism, globalization, various issues in the continent of Africa in the past and present. Students will grapple with global political, economic, and cultural trends and how these factors influenced the making of modern Africa. Similarly, students will also consider how Africa and Africans contributed (and continue to contribute) to global discourses on development, modernity, and politics in this increasingly interconnected world.