B019292 - HISTORY OF AFRICA

Italian

Starting from fundamental issues on African historiography – from the question of sources to the role played by the construction and re-construction of the African history during the colonial period and from independence onwards – the course offers an overview of the history of Sub-Saharan Africa between the XIX and XX century.

G. Calchi Novati, P. Valsecchi, Africa. La storia ritrovata, Roma, Carocci, 2005; Giovanni Carbone, Africa. Gli Stati, la politica, i conflitti, Mulino, 2012 (terza ed.)

The course will allow students to grasp fundamental trajectories of the political history of the African continent and place them against the backdrop of the general transformations of the international system during the XIX and XX centuries. They will be able to appreciate the different levels of analysis, the local, the regional and the international.
The students will become acquainted with sources and bibliography on the examined issues and will be able to develop original research hypotheses.

No binding requirements

Lectures and workshops on documentary sources in Italian, French and English. Film and fiction will be used as complementary teaching tools.

An oral exam on the issues examined through the lectures.
Alternatively, the students may pass a written exam based on open questions at the end of the two modules.
Students that do not attend the course will have to pass an oral exam based on the suggested readings.

Starting from fundamental issues of African historiography – from the question of sources to the role played by the construction and re-construction of the African history during the colonial period and since independence – the course offers an overview of the history of the continent between the XIX and XX century.
Against the backdrop of the general evolution of the international system, the course will focus on the political, economic and social transformations occurring before and during the imposition of the colonial order to grasp trends of continuity and discontinuity within the colonial State in the different parts of the African continent.
The second section of the course will analyse different paths of change in the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world during the first half oh the XX century in order to understand the roots of the decolonisation process and its consequences on the development of the independent and contemporary African States.