HIST203L - African Civilization up to 1870

3 Credit(s)

Liberal Arts
All too often, “Africa” conjures up certain predictable, and negative, images: poverty, disease, tribalism, warfare, and corruption. While much attention is paid to Africa’s problems, very rarely does the World get a sense of how African societies and the issues they face have developed and changed over time. Contrary to popular belief of the “primitive” and “dark” continent, African states in the extensive period before European conquest were the products of sophisticated cultural, social, and material systems. The primary themes in this course concern the ways in which ancient African communities developed and interacted with others. After a continental overview and exploration of Africa, we will consider several regional developments successively but not always in chronological order, beginning with early African civilizations and ending with initial European conquest.