African Politics

Catalog description

Africa is in a process of transition, a continent of growing strategic importance to the U.S. and a land with considerable variation in political and economic success. The course is an introduction to the politics of sub-Saharan Africa. To understand the continent’s current challenges, the course examines the legacies of colonial rule, including colonial mark on the politics of ethnicity; focuses on the rise of authoritarianism in Africa in the 1970s and 1980s; examines the success and failure of democratization that is transforming the continent today; embarks on the quest to understand the continent’s struggle with poverty and debt. Lastly, the course explores some of the biggest obstacle to Africa’s stability, including state collapse, wars, corruption, while contemplating the future that lies ahead.