Admission requirements
Free and compulsory for students enrolled in the RESMAAS program. Those from other MA programs may be admitted with prior registration (contact coordinator)
Description
For the understanding of Southern Africa, here defined as Africa from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Cape of Good Hope, it is necessary to appreciate the irrelevance of boundaries both now and in the past. Ethnic and, today, state boundaries have always been permeable. Students of the region are thus forced to look outside the most obvious units of study. They will have to investigate the similarities and differences within Southern African kinship structures, gender relations, political ideologies etc., the variable length of colonial domination. In some areas this lasted three hundred years, in others barely a generation. This has obvious consequences for the ways in which pre-colonial ideologies have survived. This lies at the core of the understanding of politics in the region. the prime importance of extractive industries for the economy of the region, In some places this has led to a relatively self-sustaining industrial revolution; in others the decline of the mining industry has produced urban collapse. In this, of course, the central significance of Gauteng to the region’s (and indeed the continent’s) economy cannot be overemphasised. the processes whereby technologies, material and immaterial, have been absorbed into African societies, or imposed upon them. This allows the understanding not merely of “development” initiatives but also of the (far more influential and successful) Christianisation of the region.
Within this framework it will be possible to investigate the political traditions and the current politics of the region, the development of economic structures across the region, and extending well beyond it, the specificities of Southern African religious life, the virulence of the HIV-AIDS epidemic, the patterns of poverty and wealth etc.
Course objectives
The course provides basic knowledge about the region in terms topics, historical processes, current events, canonical studies and recent trends in research agendas.
Timetable
Timetable
Detailed information on starting dates of courses can be found on Blackboard after registration.
Mode of instruction
The course consists of six lectures. The lectures deal with central themes in the study of this region. The lectures provide students with basic knowledge and give an overview of canonical studies and topics.
Students will read 100 pp. per week
Assessment method
Evaluation of paper submitted at the end of the course
Blackboard
Available for registered students.
Reading list
Provided on the first meeting of class and posted on Blackboard
Registration
Exchange and Study Abroad students, please see the Study in Leiden website for information on how to apply
Register via uSis.
Contact information
Dr. Azeb Amha
Academic Coordinator
P O Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, NL
Tel. +31-71-527-3364