A number of classes taught at the University of Chicago feature Africa prominently, see below for a sampling. Check the Course Catalogue for current offerings. African Civilization is taught on an annual basis, as is the Colonizations Core, which may also be of interest to students studying Africa.

SPRING 2024

ANTH20701/HIST10101/CRES20701/MDVL10101/SOSC20101: Introduction to African Civilization I | Emily Lynn Osborn or Samuel Daly

This course considers literary, oral, linguistic, and material sources to investigate African societies and states from the early Iron Age through the emergence of the Atlantic World. Case studies include: the empires of Ghana and Mali, the Swahili Coast, Great Zimbabwe, Nok of Nigeria, and medieval Ethiopia. We also consider religious and spiritual transformation, including Islam in Africa, as well as the origins and effects of European contact, and the emergence of the transatlantic trade in enslaved human beings. Students examine these times and places through primary sources (such as cultural artifacts, visual representations, myths, and memoirs) which illuminate African perspectives on these different places and times. Assignments: oral presentations, document analyses, essays, and team projects.

ARTH22305: Spiritual and Protective Lives of Objects in African Art | Janet Purdy

This seminar explores visual culture and historical arts of Africa primarily from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is not an exhaustive geographical and temporal survey of the continent’s object-making traditions, but rather, an introduction through a number of case studies highlighting religious practices and uses for art and objects of devotion and everyday life. Investigations will consider objects’ tangible and intangible elements to examine their spiritual and protective dimensions through various lenses: organized religions, including Islam and Christianity, local belief systems and ritual practices, social or political organizations, and other cultural distinctions. Such contextualization will contribute to students’ recognition of the diversity and historical depth of the continent’s arts and cultures. We will visit objects in local museums and special exhibitions for in-person, close looking and to fuel discussions surrounding the role of museums and museum display and interpretation.

HIST20008: East Africa and the Indian Ocean | Samuel Daly

This course offers an introduction to the long history of East Africa in the Indian Ocean world. Areas of concentration will include trade and cultural interaction with the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia, new dynamics in the context of European colonization, and East Africa’s important place in decolonization and the Non-Aligned Movement. Along the way, we will ask some broad questions about the region. How are societies formed through processes of migration and interaction? What dynamics bind people together as distinct communities, and what factors lead them to break apart? How have ideas about gender and sex changed over time in East Africa? How are all these matters shaped by religion and cosmology? East African lives were shaped by forces external to the continent – but East Africans shaped those forces too. Along the way, we will analyze a wide variety of materials and viewpoints, including ones that are not conventionally used to tell stories about the past. These include archaeology, linguistics, oral traditions, environmental sources, written and archival materials, life histories, and visual and performed art.

LING28345: Language, Identity, and Development in Africa

With more than a quarter of the languages of humanity, the linguistic diversity of Africa represents a richness in terms of world heritage and linguistic description, but also a challenge for trans-community communication and for the integration of small minorities in larger national communities. Additionally, the persistent use of former colonial languages in most official functions may constitute an impediment, with regard to productive communication between educated elites and ordinary community members and the involvement of the latter in national development. The present course addresses these different issues in a descriptive perspective and through open discussions about potential resolutions in terms of language valorization and language planning. At the end of the course, the students will be able to classify African languages of wider communication in their respective families and identify key features of the latter; identify and discuss potential issues and / or advantages relating to the use of those languages in connection with endogenous development of African communities.

ANTH24003/RDIN24003/SOSC24003/HIST18303/SALC20702/CRES24003: Colonizations III: Decolonization, Revolution, Freedom

The third quarter considers the processes and consequences of decolonization both in newly independent nations and former colonial powers. Through an engagement with postcolonial studies, we explore the problematics of freedom and sovereignty; anti-colonial movements, thinking and struggles; nation-making and nationalism; and the enduring legacies of colonialism.

LANGUAGES

The University of Chicago is an active member of the CourseShare initiative. Course offerings include Zulu, Wolof, Yoruba, Bamana, Mandinka, and Malagasy.

Swahili, including Swahili I, Swahili II, Swahili III, and Intermediate Swahili III. This sequence is designed to help students acquire communicative competence in Swahili and a basic understanding of its structures.

Arabic, including Elementary, Intermediate, High Indermediate Modern, High Intermediate Classical, Advanced, and regional colloquial. This sequence concentrates on the acquisition and mastery of speaking, reading, and aural skills in a variety of types of Arabic.

Please email Ryan Eykholt with any questions.