- Southern African History

Catalog description

This course grapples with a basic but fundamental question that has been at the heart of much scholarship on Africa: how is southern Africa's history distinct from the history of the rest of the African continent? To address this issue, this course takes a sweeping approach, covering major developments in southern Africa from the mid-17th century through the era of formal colonization and subsequent independence. We will be particularly interested in exploring the foundations and growth of a racial order in southern Africa, and more broadly examining the role that race has played in this region through the colonial and postcolonial eras. Major themes will include cultural contacts between Africans and non-Africans; the slave trade and its consequences; Shaka and myths surrounding the Zulu Empire; economic transformations in the colonial era; and the struggle for independence in different southern African countries.