HIAF 201 Early African History through the Era of the Slave Trade Fall 1997 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:45 AM, Maury 104 Joseph C. Miller Office hours: Tuesday 11:00-12:30, Wednesday 1:00-2:30 PM Phone: 210 Levering E-Mail: jcm@virginia.edu About the Course Readings Syllabus Term Paper Assignment Other UVa History Department Courses Library Resources

Introduction -- History 201 introduces undergraduates to the early history of the peoples of Africa, with emphasis on "Black" Africa south of the Sahara. The course begins with the origins of African civilizations in the later "stone age" (ca. 25,000 BCE) and runs through the late-eighteenth-century years of Africa's most intensive exports of slaves. It concentrates on people and civilizations indigenous to Africa. It therefore notices Asian and European visitors only as people in Africa influenced them or took them into account. Such extraneous (though related) topics in European or world history as the origins of Islam, the Atlantic slave trade, European wars that touched African shores, the African diaspora in the New World, and European explorers and missionaries receive attention mainly in their African aspects. The emphasis on Africa in this course provides a valuable alternative perspective on these, and other, seemingly familiar events.

Course perspective -- Students in HIAF 201 are sometimes surprised to learn that American stereotypes of an integrated "African" past on a continental scale, or of a single pan-African culture comparable in coherence to the unity of "American" or "European" history, had little relevance to how people in Africa thought or acted during the centuries covered in this course. People living there at that time seldom interacted with one another on so extensive a basis, and even the largest imperial systems on the continent covered only modest portions of that huge land mass. As a result, the facts of "African history" before 1800 or so form no single integrated narrative like the one that historians of England, for example, can spin around the royal line of Tudors and Stuarts. Nor were there as many "African" cultural uniformities of historical significance as Americans might assume. Students beginning African history must therefore commit themselves to distinguishing carefully among numerous and highly various civilizations in Africa, some spanning only a few hundred square miles and comprehending populations as few in numbers as several thousand individuals -- though none of them any the less significant for their small size.

Approaches to the course material -- Learning about Africa's past by memorizing only the "facts" of all these different peoples' historical experiences would commit the student to memorizing a great mass of unfamiliar names and terms, in hundreds of different languages. Instead, this course instead seeks to move beyond such compilation of exotic curiosities to understand people not as different from ourselves as they at first might appear. We will seek comprehensibility, and a limited degree of unity, by emphasizing themes, recurrent tendencies among people even of very diverse backgrounds who reacted to similar circumstances in similar ways. These themes transcend and explain the flow of local events and personalities to reveal recurrent patterns of historical change that extend throughout the continent. Though students must also learn basic geography and a modest selection of names and dates, they should concentrate on selected factual examples principally as they illustrate significant trends of this sort.

This thematic approach means studying the first weeks' lectures and readings carefully to identify the "key themes" that will develop during the remainder of the term. It also means that the final examination will test students' abilities to draw these themes together into a coherent understanding of how and why people in Africa behaved as they did, both in their distinctiveness and in ways comparable to history in more familiar parts of the globe.

Students will be responsible for following the course along three complementary channels, intended to encourage this balance between specific knowledge of what happened and general understanding of how and why people in Africa developed their lives as they did. These aspects of doing African history advance simultaneously through the course syllabus in the following forms:

• (1) Lectures focus on general concepts, themes, and patterns; they illustrate general points with apposite (but selected) examples and case studies. The lectures thus present the instructor's interpretation of the subject but make no systematic attempt at comprehensive coverage of what happened.
• (2) Readings -- which are to be completed before the week for which they appear in the syllabus -- particularly the text (Shillington, History of Africa), present the factual materials. It is the student's responsibility to grasp the historical narratives developed in the readings and then to relate the doings presented there to the general themes outlined in the lectures. Sometimes the interpretive emphasis in the readings -- that is, the meanings and significance attributed to events -- agrees with that of the lectures; more often it does not. Assigned authors disagree with one another also, sometimes directly, sometimes only by implication. Discussion sections inquire into some of the disputes over interpretation that lurk behind your assignments; you will understand better what you are asked to read if you contribute actively to them.
• (3) Still other readings provide opportunities for students to probe technical problems of reconstructing a past documented in Africa no more than marginally by written sources and to consider what other methods enable historians to know the "facts" and themes presented in readings and lectures, and with what certainty. As a general rule, students (like any historian) should accept no conclusion-- not even a seemingly glib assurance by the instructor -- until they have thought through the evidence, methodologies, theories, and facts supporting it. An "HIAF 201 Frequent Critic Program" provides opportunities throughout the term for you to sharpen your critical abilities with the source materials of African history.

The concepts and themes presented in lectures thus introduce a conceptual "language" in which you will learn to think about Africa, using the factual raw materials in the readings for "vocabulary" and the rules of the discipline of history as "grammar". The final examination will invite you to speak as fluently as you can "in African historyspeak" by the end of the term.

Students should also begin the course with a clear awareness that they may bring assumptions of their own about "Africa" that will turn out to have little, if any, basis in Africa's past as the methods of history reveal it. In the United States, after centuries of racial division, it is almost impossible not to have formed strong "beliefs" about the subject, often not informed by disciplined historical thinking. Students in HIAF 201 may therefore be surprised to see what evidence, as opposed to popular expectations, reveals, and some may have to suspend deeply held convictions in order to notice what the lectures and readings are really saying, rather than selecting from them only elements that support opinions already held.

Students who succeed in integrating all three aspects of HIAF 201 should emerge from the course with both an intelligent understanding of what people in Africa have made of their lives and sharpened critical facilities that will help them to understand other sorts of history, as well as to pursue intelligently their own life-long educations in African affairs outside the classroom.

Specific requirements -- Geography is vital, and African historical geography is not often familiar to American undergraduates. Short map exercises will be given every week on the materials covered, and students will be graded on the best ten scores they achieve; no one can take the final examination with an average of less than "7". During the first weeks of the term, the instructor will supply lists indicating important geographical terms and physical features, but by about the fifth week students will themselves become responsible for distinguishing historically significant geographical, political, and ethnic aspects of African maps from the merely incidental. Accurate, appropriate maps accompanying other written work, including examinations, to illustrate points made in it will count toward the grade awarded.

Since it is so important that students acquaint themselves with basic facts and that they grasp the differences among interpretations of Africa's history, they must remain current in the assigned readings. The map quizzes, in particular, will require that students carefully evaluate each and every reading in order to identify the significant geographical points that will turn up on the quizzes. Evidence of general lack of currency in the readings among class members will justify a graded "pop" quiz on the current week's assignment.

Participation in discussion will be graded as: (A) active leadership, (B) consistent participation, (C) regular presence but only occasional responsiveness, (D) irrelevant effort and/or irregular presence, and (F) repeated absence or inattention. The only basis for creditable participation is careful preparation, on the basis of guidance that you will receive in advance.

A conventional one-hour written mid-term examination, given in the seventh week, will consist of two parts: a choice of essays inviting you to synthesize course themes and interpretations, and a short-answer "identify-and-give-the-historical-significance-of ... " section on more specific points. Students who receive an unsatisfying mark on this mid-term and wish to eliminate its influence on their final grade may do so by writing a similar exam in the fourteenth week. They will receive credit for only the higher of the two grades earned.

Students will also submit three four-to-five-page papers, one prior to each of the (two) mid-term examinations, in which they assess the assigned readings in ways that will prepare them for the exam (due October 7 and November 20), and one more analyzing documentary sources from Collins, African History: Text and Readings (see syllabus) in the light of themes and patterns relevant to the time(s) and place(s) from which the documents come (due December 4).

The final examination will consist entirely of essay questions inviting students to integrate what they have learned throughout the semester.

Grading -- All work will be evaluated in the spirit of constructive criticism; it is unlikely that anyone will submit an assignment so perfect that it exceeds the instructors' abilities to suggest further improvements. It is assumed that students have enrolled in HIAF 201 to learn, not simply to receive praise for their achievements (or to receive a given grade), and that they will therefore systematically incorporate instructors' suggestions on early assignments in subsequent work. Papers and quizzes that do not reflect such effort will be returned, unmarked, for appropriate revision and prompt resubmission.

No course succeeds unless everyone involved -- students as well as instructors -- engages in open, honest discussion. The instructors will surely express honest opinions of your work. To teach effectively they depend on similar honesty from students in return. If you don't "get it", come in and help us all understand why; if you have a gripe, tell us (not your roommate). Office hours and e-mail addresses are posted.

Beyond the instructors, students are encouraged to avail themselves of all the academic support services of the University: the Writing Center, peer advisory groups, deans and faculty advisers, the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center, and others. You must acknowledge specific aid received on written assignments; it is to your credit that you sought it out and were able to gain from it, and you will receive appropriate accommodation in the grades awarded.

HIAF 201 proceeds in the spirit of the University's Honor System, particularly its premise of the prevailing "Community of Trust"; students "pledge" their written work accordingly. The Systen's sanctions are distinctly secondary to the collaborative spirit that it establishes for us to proceed to learn.

Final grades for the course are similarly secondary to the learning that has preceded their award. They will approximate, as closely as possible, students' "highest consistent performance".

This policy encourages students to take risks -- though always based on the materials presented in the course -- to think for themselves in a disciplined, historical way, to obtain instructors' reactions to their efforts, and to learn from possible failures. Most assignments contain options and opportunities to discard less-than-successful initial efforts to grasp a subject unfamiliar to beginning students, particularly those in their first or second year. Since no mechanical calculation of percentages weights the isolated low mark against you, occasional valiant but misguided efforts cannot cause you to miss a higher final grade by 0.1%. The costs to one's grade of making a mistake or two are thus very low compared to what can be gained in experience and knowledge from putting yourself on the line.

Texts -- The following titles, all paperbacks, have been requested for purchase at the Newcomb Hall bookstore:

• Kevin Shillington, History of Africa (New York: MacMillan, 2nd ed. 1995) TEXT
• Thomas Spear, Kenya's Past (London: Longman, 1981) METHODS
• Graham Connah, African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987)
• D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (London: Longmans, 1965), or equivalent edition
• Frederick Denny, An Introduction to Islam (2nd rev. ed.) (New York: MacMillan, 1994)
• Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990)
• Robert O. Collins, African History: Text and Readings, 3 vols. (New York: Markus Wiener, 1990) RECOMMENDED --SOURCES
• Paul Bohannan and Philip Curtin, Africa and Africans (4th ed.) (Prospect Heights IL: Waveland Press, 1995) RECOMMENDED

Reserve materials -- All assigned readings have been placed on two-hour reserve in Clemons Library, some in multiple copies. Some are listed under author and others under title; if at first you don't find what you are looking for, try again, under some other heading. Most shorter materials are also available in the new Clemons "ELECTRONIC RESERVE", accessible on the Web at or through the VIRGO homepage (click on course reserves, under Miller). If you want to print these files directly through your personal computer you will need < a href="http:\\www.lib.virginia.edu/reserve/">Acrobat Reader, link to "Acrobat Reader"); otherwise you can download to a disk(ette) and print through word-processing software. You can also print through any of the University's computer labs.

Course packet -- The UVa Copy Center has prepared a packet of photocopied course materials; it contains the [twelve] items carrying asterisks (*) in this syllabus. Those who use the packet will want to consult the originals of the materials containing photographs to study and appreciate the colorful published versions.

This Syllabus -- The syllabus has been written to anticipate questions that students raise as they proceed through the course -- how to prepare for examinations, where to find materials, what approach the course emphasizes, and so on. Read it carefully, and then return to it again throughout the semester as you may need it -- and then, if you are still in doubt, by all means ask the instructors.

HIAF 201 presupposes no prior familiarity with Africa or with the study of history, but it demands a willingness on the student's part to come to grips with a good deal of new material and sometimes to suspend old and comfortable assumptions to examine new, occasionally unsettling, but always fascinating facts and theories about Africa.

Schedule -- The class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to 10:45 AM in Maury 104. Each class will contain some combination of lecture, discussion, and student participation. Everyone should plan to attend every class meeting.

Teaching assistant

• Amy Feely
  924-6391/3 arf5a@virginia.edu
  Office hours - Randall Hall 128; Tues 1:00-2:30 PM, Thurs 3:30-4:30PM (and by appointment)
• Discussion sections --
  Section 101 -- Wed 6:00-6:50 PM (Cabell 242)
  Section 102 -- Wed 9:00-9:50 AM (Cabell 334)
  Section 103 -- Fri 8:00-8:50 AM (Cabell 247)

The final examination will be given in Maury 104 on Wednesday 17 December, 2:00-5:00 PM

"Believe those who are seeking truth. Doubt those who find it." (André Gide)

"If you wish to know who I am,
If you wish me to teach you what I know,
Cease for the while to be what you are
And forget what you know"
(Tierno Bokar, sage of Bandiagara)

Week 1 - Introduction and Geography

• Sept. 4 - General introduction to the course
  Be prepared to take: the first map quiz
  Discussion in class -- Be prepared to discuss: your assumptions about the African past

  Backgrounds --

Week 2 - The Dawn of history

• Sept. 9 - Geography
• Sept. 11 - Climate and history
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: "myth" and "history", what is "historiography?" (a matter of perspective); reading for the map quizzes -- Be prepared to take: second map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 1 (pp. 1-13). (TEXT) *Paul Bohannan and Philip Curtin, Africa and Africans (4th ed.) (Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1995), pp. 6-45, 126-64. (RESERVE)

Week 3 - Creating Classical African Civilizations

• Sept. 16 Foraging and the origins of community (ca. 25,000-5000 BCE)
• Sept. 18 - Pastoralism and the origins of settled society (5000-1000 BCE)
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: Archaeology and history; preparation of first paper; Be prepared to take: third map quiz
  Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 2 (pp. 14-35).
  Graham Connah, African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), ch 2 (pp. 6-23).
  VIDEO - Basil Davidson, Africa: A Voyage of Discovery, Program 1 - "Different but Equal". (VHS 1741)

Week 4 - Farmers and the challenge of Agriculture

• Sept. 23- Ancient Egypt (3500-500 BCE)
• Sept. 25 - Agriculture, iron, and life in small-scale societies (2000 BCE - 500 CE)
  FIRST PAPER DRAFTS DUE
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: linguistics and history, preparing your own map quiz study lists; Be prepared to take: fourth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, chs 3-4 (pp. 36-61). Connah, African Civilizations, ch 3 (pp. 24-66).
  Thomas T. Spear, Kenya's Past: An Introduction to Historical Method in Africa (London: Longman, 1981), ch 2 (pp. 22-45).
  *Jan Vansina, "Western Bantu Expansion," Journal of African History, 25, 2 (1984), pp. 129-45. (RESERVE)

Challenges of Classical Africa --

Week 5 - Western Africa 800-1400 CE

• Sept. 30- Commerce, cities, and statecraft in early Africa (400-1000 CE)
• Oct. 2 - Militarization: the adoption of horses and Islam in western Africa
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: Oral traditions as history; revising a paper; Be prepared to take: fifth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, chs 5-7 (pp. 62-106).
  *Susan Keech and Roderick J. McIntosh, "Finding West Africa's Oldest City," National Geographic, 162, 3 (Sept. 1982), pp. 396-418. (RESERVE)
  Connah, African Civilizations, chs 5-6 (pp. 97-120, 121-49).
  Spear, Kenya's Past, ch 3 (pp. 46-70).
  D. T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (London: Longmans, 1965). Or any other scholarly edition.
• Compare: *Nehemia Levtzion, "The Early States of the Western Sudan to 1500," in J. F. A. Ajayi, and Michael Crowder, eds., History of West Africa (3rd rev. ed.) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), vol. 1, pp. 138-43 (or pp. 123-28 in the 2nd ed.); and Ralph A. Austen and Jan Jansen, "History, Oral Transmission and Structure in Ibn Khaldun's Chronology of Mali Rulers" History in Africa, 23 (1996), pp. 17-28. (RESERVE).
• Sources - Robert O. Collins, African History: Text and Readings (New York: Markus Wiener, 1990), vol. 1 (Western African History), pp. 22-56. (RESERVE)

Week 6 - Eastern and Northeastern Africa before 1500 CE

• Oct. 7- Ethiopia
  FIRST PAPER DUE
• Oct. 9 - The East African coast
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: Arab sources, Islam; Be prepared to take: sixth map quiz.
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, chs 8-9 (pp. 107-15, 122-31).
  Frederick Denny, An Introduction to Islam (2nd ed.) (New York: Macmillan, 1994), pp. 59-82.
  Connah, African Civilizations, chs 4, 7 (pp. 67-96, 150-82).
• Sources - Collins, African History, vol. 2 (Eastern African History), pp. 48-66. (RESERVE)
  VIDEO - Basil Davidson, Africa: A Voyage of Discovery, Program 2 - "Mastering a Continent".

Week 7 - East and Central Africa before 1500 CE

• Oct. 14 - Reading Holiday
• Oct. 16 - East African interior and Central Africa
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to review: first mid-term examination; What does the Garden of Eden have to do with African History?; Be prepared to take: seventh map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 8 (pp. 115-21), ch 10 (pp. 138-46).
  *Dora Jane Hamblin, "Has the Garden of Eden Been Located at Last?" Smithsonian, 18, 2 (1987), pp. 127-35. (RESERVE)
  *Jan Vansina, "The Peoples of the Forest," in David Birmingham and Phyllis Martin, eds., History of Central Africa (London: Longman, 1983), vol. 1, pp. 75-100. (RESERVE)

Week 8 - Southern Africa before 1500 CE

• Oct. 21 - Southern Africa
• Oct. 23 - FIRST MID-TERM EXAMINATION
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: Great Zimbabwe; Be prepared to take: eighth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 10 (pp. 146-56).
  Garlake, Kingdoms of Africa, pp. 69-92.
  Connah, African Civilizations, ch 8 (pp. 183-213).
  VIDEO - Basil Davidson, Africa: A Voyage of Discovery - Program 3, "Caravans of Gold".

Week 9 - Northern Africa to c. 1800

• Oct. 28 - Islam and society
• Oct. 30 - Northern Africa
  Discussion sections -- Exams returned; Be prepared to discuss: Islam: religion and history; preparing the second paper; Be prepared to take: ninth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 11 (pp. 157-69).
  Denny, Introduction to Islam, pp. 107-266.
• Sources - Collins, African History, vol. 1 (Western African History), pp. 56-61. (RESERVE)

Week 10 - Africa and the World Economy

• Nov. 4 - The Atlantic slave trade - an overview
• Nov. 6 - Imports in African economies and polities
• SECOND PAPER DUE
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: What was the importance of the African slave trade?; Be prepared to take: tenth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 12 (pp. 170-80).
  *Walter Rodney, "African Slavery and Other Forms of Social Oppression on the Upper Guinea Coast in the Context of the Atlantic Slave Trade," Journal of African History, 7, 3 (1966), pp. 431-44. [Reprinted in Martin A. Klein and G. Wesley Johnson, eds., Perspectives on the African Past (Boston: Little-Brown, 1972), pp. 152-66; also in Joseph E. Inikori, ed., Forced Migration: The Impact of the Export Slave Trade on African Societies (London: Hutchinson, 1981), pp. 61-73.]
  *John D. Fage, "Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History," Journal of African History, 10, 3 (1969), pp. 393-404. [Reprinted in Klein and Johnson, eds., Perspectives , pp. 140-52; also in Inikori, ed., Forced Migration, pp. 154-66.] (both RESERVE)
• Sources - Collins, African History, vol. 1 (Western African History), pp. 171-90. (RESERVE)
  VIDEO - Basil Davidson, Africa: A Voyage of Discovery - Program 4, "Kings and Cities".

Week 11 - Western Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Trade

• Nov. 11 - Militarists - Slaving states in Western Africa
• [Nov. 13 - Merchants - Non-centralized slaving networks] -- to be rescheduled
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: Sudanic empires revisited; Be prepared to take: eleventh map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 13 (pp. 181-96).
  *Claude Meillassoux, "The Role of Slavery in the Economic and Social History of Sahelo-Sudanic Africa," in Inikori, ed., Forced Migration, pp. 74-99. (RESERVE)
  Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 1-37.
• Sources - Collins, African History, vol. 1 (Western African History), pp. 191-207. (RESERVE)

Week 12 - Central and Southeastern Africa, 16th-18th centuries

• Nov. 18 - Central African slaving frontiers
• Nov. 20 - Southeastern Africa and Madagascar
• SECOND PAPER DUE
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: European written sources; Be prepared to review: second paper, and second mid-term examination; Be prepared to take: twelfth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 14 (pp. 197-211).
  *Joseph C. Miller, "The Paradoxes of Impoverishment in the Atlantic Zone," in Birmingham and Martin, eds., History of Central Africa, vol. 1, pp. 118-51. (RESERVE)
  *Thomas Q. Reefe, "The Societies of the Eastern Savanna," pp. 160-94; and Allan K. Smith, "The Indian Ocean Zone," pp. 205-34; both in Birmingham and Martin, eds., History of Central Africa, vol. 1. (RESERVE)
  Manning, Slavery and African Life, pp. 38-85.
• Sources - Collins, African History, vol. 2 (Eastern African History), pp. 66-92; vol. 3 (Central/Southern African History), pp. 33-59, 60-86. (RESERVE)

Week 13 -Second Mid-Term/Review

• Nov. 25- SECOND MID-TERM EXAMINATION
• Reading - Manning, Slavery and African Life, pp. 86-148.
  NO Discussion sections
  THANKSGIVING BREAK

Week 14 - The European factor

• Dec. 2 - Coastal Societies: "Europeans" in tropical Africa
• Dec. 4 - Foreign settlement in southern Africa
• SOURCE PAPER DUE
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: Second mid-term examination; preparing the source paper; Be prepared to take: thirteenth map quiz
• Reading - Shillington, History of Africa, ch 15 (pp. 212-96).
• Sources - Collins, African History, vol. 3 (Central/Southern African History), pp. 152-69. (RESERVE)

Week 15 -Review

• Dec. 9 - Myths, History and Historiography in Africa
• Dec. 11 - Final review; source papers returned, with discussion
  Discussion sections -- Be prepared to discuss: the hard questions of African history; preparing for the final examination; Be prepared to take: fourteenth map quiz Reading - (complete assigned materials for the entire semester)