Cont. African Culture/Ideology

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The course seeks to introduce students to African cultural ideologies constructed by African scholars during the 20th century to address cultural dilemmas and related identity issues faced by African societies following the colonial encounter. It is a case study of local ideological responses to the cultural dilemmas generated by colonization as an experiment of forced acculturation. What do we mean by African culture today? Should we speak of African culture or African cultures? After revisiting these questions as a matter of introduction, the course dwells on the main cultural ideologies such as panafricanism, négritude, authenticity, afrocentrism, African renaissance and afropolitanism construed as collective identity and postcolonial discourses. We further explore the “cultural argument” in relation to politics and economic development in Africa. Is African culture an asset or an obstacle to the modernization of Africa?