West African Women Writers

Catalog description

In 2019, Ghana launched its "Year of the Return" campaign encouraging members of the Black diaspora and African descendants to return to Ghana. This move pivoted Accra as a tourist destination fro members of the Black diaspora while also encouraging a conceptualization of Ghana as home for African Americans. Additionally, Ghana offered citizenship for members of the diaspora. What does it mean to understand contemporary Ghana as not only home to the Ghanaian diaspora but all African descendants? With a population of 8 million, Lagos, Nigeria is the biggest city in West Africa. The Nigerian diaspora is one of the fastest. How do you understand contemporary narratives of Ghana and Nigeria as well as their relationship to to the larger Black diaspora? This course is intended as an opportunity to study and discuss several works of literature, film, and other media in a global context. To do so, we will use a variety of approaches to work toward in-depth cultural and textual analysis. The understanding, making visible, and translating issues of global black identity. In particular, we will be reading works of contemporary Ghanian and Nigerian fiction. Students will consider how these texts relate to nation, history, gender roles, race and ethnicity, various artistic genres, and relevant literary and cultural traditions. (This course will culminate with an optional post-semester trip to Accra, Ghana for roughly 9-10 days. There students will engage with cultural institutions, customs and practices as well as a visit to the Elmina slave castles. Fulfills Core requirement: Diversity (DIV).