Environment and Development in African History

Catalog description

Provides a critical exploration of the history and political-economy of environmental changes and human activities in Africa from earlier times to the present. It examines the ways in which the dynamics of human-environment relationship have shaped the development of African societies and economies from the rise of ancient civilizations to the contemporary problems of war and famine. Although significant attention will be given to the pre-colonial era (like the impacts of iron-working, irrigation, deforestation and desertification), the focus of the course will be on the 20th and century and after, looking at the impacts of imperialism, colonialism, globalization and the postcolonial quest for development on the state of the environment in Africa. In the discussion, we will demonstrate that the shaping of African environments and ecologies is a product of complex, evolving and interconnected developments between humans and nature within and beyond the African continent. Not for credit in addition to SBC: 320 or SBC: 374.