2 classes matched your search criteria.
AFRO 3431 is also offered in Fall 2021
Spring 2013 | AFRO 3431 Section 004: Early Africa and Its Global Connections (69411)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Lecture
- Instructor Consent:
- No Special Consent Required
- Instruction Mode:
- In Person Term Based
- Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Delivery Medium
- Meets With:
HIST 3431 Section 001
- Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
Mon,
Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AM
UMTC, East Bank
Blegen Hall 145
- Also Offered:
- Course Catalog Description:
- Socioeconomic, political, and cultural development in precolonial Africa, from ancient Egypt through era of trans-Atlantic slave trade.
- Class Description:
- Africa is in the headlines a lot these days. Islamic militants in North Mali. Ivory poaching in East Africa. Somali pirates. War in Darfur. Drought in the Sahel. Striking miners in South Africa. Hunger, HIV-AIDS, child soldiers, the ?Arab Spring.? What do you know about the history behind these headlines? Have Africa's internal politics and global connections always been as conflict-ridden as they seem today? Why do we hear so little good news from the continent that is the home of some of the world's oldest civilizations, not to mention the cradle of humankind? This course offers an introduction to early African history, focusing on the dynamic cultures and social systems, sophisticated technologies and commercial networks, complex spiritual beliefs and political structures that shaped the continent and its relations with the outside world from earliest times to 1800. Through lectures, case studies, readings and films, we will put the challenges?and accomplishments?of contemporary Africa into historical perspective, paying special attention to the efforts of ordinary men and women to control their destinies in an increasingly interconnected world. No prior coursework or knowledge needed!
- Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/69411/1133
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 13 November 2012
Spring 2013 | AFRO 3431 Section 005: Early Africa and Its Global Connections (69412)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Discussion
- Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Delivery Medium
- Meets With:
HIST 3431 Section 002
- Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
UMTC, West Bank
Blegen Hall 140
- Auto Enrolls With:
- Section 004
- Course Catalog Description:
- Socioeconomic, political, and cultural development in precolonial Africa, from ancient Egypt through era of trans-Atlantic slave trade.
- Class Description:
- Early African farmers and hunters, men and women, kings and queens, commoners and slaves long stood at the center - not the margins -- of global change. From the rise of agriculture to the culmination of the slave trades, Africans actively borrowed ideas, technologies, and foods, guns, and other goods from Asian and European "strangers." But they profoundly influenced these strangers as well, contributing innovative ideas, technologies, cultural expressions, and wealth. Through close study of oral traditions, epics, archaeological data, food, autobiography, and film, we will investigate early Africans' global connections. Environment plays an important role in our study; we explore the ways that Africans creatively adapted to and altered the continent's diverse environments, and how their choices shaped the kinds of societies in which they lived. By immersing ourselves in Africa's early history, we will also begin to understand and to critique how and why contemporary western media has come to portray Africans as "marginal" to global change.
- Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/69412/1133
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 21 May 2007
ClassInfo Links - Spring 2013 African Amer & African Studies Classes