21H.165
A Survey of Modern African History
Surveys the history of 19th- and 20th-century Africa. Focuses on the European conquest of Africa and the dynamics of colonial rule, especially its socioeconomic and cultural consequences. Looks at how the rising tide of African nationalism, in the form of labor strikes and guerrilla wars, ushered out colonialism. Examines the postcolonial states, focusing on the politics of development, recent civil wars in countries like Rwanda and Liberia, the AIDS epidemic, and the history of Apartheid in South Africa up to 1994.
Spring 2019 · Modern African History
Topics
- The Slave Trade and West Africa to 19 th Century
- 19 th Century and Colonial Conquest
- Gender and Earlier Forms of Resistance: Aba Riots in Nigeria
- Everyday Family Life in Rural Africa: An Example from Western Kenya
- The Winning of Independence
- Theories of Decolonization
- The “End” of Apartheid
- Crises in the 1990s: The Rwandan Genocide
- Nollywood
- Brief presentations of your final papers
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2019
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.