Description

This module is about the geography of social change in Africa. It is designed to build on the second year course Development Geography, but there are no prerequisites. The module is assessed with a 3,000 word coursework essay, based on individual research.

The aim of the module is to analyse the different factors that shape spatial differences in development indicators across Africa. The module will allow students to explore the diversity of forms that the geography of social change in Africa takes. As such the course will investigate the impacts of history, politics, sociology, and economics on spatial patterns of development. The module uses postcolonial theory as an analytical framework. This entails reflecting on the ongoing legacies of colonialism not only in terms of empirical institutions, practices and norms but also in relation to the production of knowledge and ideas. The module relies very heavily on wide independent reading, including reading from disciplines beyond geography.

Outcomes: At the end of the module students will be able to show an advanced level of knowledge about specific academic literatures (the required reading), specific places within Africa, and specific key concepts (especially those drawn from postcolonial theory). On completing the module students will have an appreciation of the diversity of changes in Africa and the limits of ‘development’ as a framework for analysing all of those changes and an introductory understanding of the inter-disciplinary field of African Studies. In relation to the Department skills log this module has a particular focus on critical analysis skills such as: the ability to assess new ideas and interpret unfamiliar texts, develop effective written communication and develop a sensitivity to different cultures and ways of thinking. The module also provides opportunities for developing verbal communication skills in class and seminars.

Course Content will include some (but not all) of the following topics: The character, history and value of postcolonial theory; hybridity and popular culture; the challenge of representing Africa; the legacies of colonialism; state-building and nation-building; governance; media landscapes in Africa; demography, youth, family, marriage and the politics of personal obligations; the changing hustle and everyday life; moral ethnicity and political tribalism; the modernity of Islam, Christianity and witchcraft; trade and commodities; oil and geopolitics; the invention of tradition; violent conflicts and the postcolonial state; land tenure and the politics of land redistribution; neoliberalism and democratization.

Indicative Reading

Daley, Patricia (2016) The north/south divide in the study of contemporary Africa, In ‘Interventions in the political geographies of ‘area’, edited by Powell. R.C. and Klinke, I. Political Geography, 57: 94-104.

Mkandawire, Thandika (2015). "Neopatrimonialism and the Political Economy of Economic Performance in Africa: Critical Reflections." World Politics. 67.3 : 563-612.

Nyamnjoh Francis B. (2017) Incompleteness: Frontier Africa and the Currency of Conviviality. Journal of Asian and African Studies 52(3):253-270.

Sabelo J. Ndlovu Gatsheni (2015).“Decoloniality as the Future of Africa”. History Compass 13, 10: 485- 496