More-Than-Human Histories of Africa

This seminar offers a more-than-human consideration of Africa’s past. It takes physical matter, microbes, plants, animals, the built environment, and people all as historical actors. Our premise will be that agency is not a human preserve but is embedded in and shared across heterogenous assemblages. We sample recent writings in Africa’s environmental history while considering more-than-human implications of Africa’s position as the cradle of humanity, the source for the Atlantic slave trade, the imperial possession of Europe, and an underdeveloped margin of the global capitalist economy.