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Introduction to African Civilizations Final Exam Study Guide
This is a guide to help you organize your materials and study for the exams.  This is not a comprehensive list everything that has been covered.

1) The Partition of Africa: Quinine; the Suez canal; King Leopold II; Germany; The Berlin Conference, economic and political explanations for the partition.
Readings:  GG ch. 3; July ch. 14.

2) The Colonial Period: Overall political vision for colonies; paying for the colonial enterprise, taxation; cash cropping; wage laborers; forced labor. A) British Colonialism: Lord Lugard; indirect rule; settler colonies; differences (West Africa, East Africa, and Southern Rhodesia); the copper belt; native reserves.  B) French Colonialism: assimilation, tabula rasa, the four communes, Louis Faidherbe; association, citizens and subjects, the indigénat.
Readings:  Gordon and Gordon pp.  46-50; July, chs 14, 17, and 19; Rodney "Colonialism as a System for Underdeveloping Africa"; Crowder.

3) Expressions of African Nationalism and the Achievement of Independence: Ethiopia, World War II, African nationalism, economic, political, and nationalist explanations for independence. A) Liberia: Edward Blyden; B) British Africa: Ghana: Pan-Africanism, Kwame Nkrumah, United Gold Coast Convention, Convention Peoples Party.  Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya Africa Union, Mau Mau, the ‘Emergency', Kikuyu, Land Freedom Army, Hola Camp, the oath and the pipeline; C) French: Blaise Diange, negritude, Leopold Senghor, Amie Cesaire, Civilization of the Universal, African Socialism.
Readings:  July, chs. 15, 18, and 21; Blyden, Nkrumah, Senghor.

4) South Africa:  Dutch at Cape Town, Boers (Afrikaners), Great Trek, Orange Free State, South African Republic (Transvaal), Natal, diamonds, Union of South Africa, D.F. Malan, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, petty and grand apartheid, Bantustans, Dr. Pixley Seme, African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Sharpville, P.W. Botha, F. W. De Klerk.
Readings:  Gordon and Gordon ch.  13; July ch 20.

5) Post-Colonial Politics: Failure of democracy, colonial legacy (authoritarian rule, indirect rule), nature of African Nationalism, politics as a path to wealth, authoritarianism as a way to avoid instability, patronage, Ken Sara Wiwa, MOSOP, Shell Oil, The Drilling Fields.
Readings: Gordon and Gordon ch. 4 (also look at ch. 6); July, chs. 23 and 25. Gordon and Wolpe

6) Economic Underdevelopment:  Modernization theory, Walter Rodney, "underdevelopment", dependency, neo-colonialism.  Contradictions between political stability and economic growth: urban bias, large development projects, World Bank, Structural Adjustment Programs, the erosion of political authority, the informal economy.
Readings: Gordon and Gordon ch.  5, 8; July, ch 22; Rodney "Some Questions on Development," Abrokwaa, George.

7) Remaking Society: Gender in Africa: Excision, forced marriage, polygamy, barriers to the participation of women in politics, barriers to women gaining economic equality, Women with Open Eyes.
Readings: Gordon and Gordon ch. 10, Aidoo

 Introduction to African Civilizations Mid-Term Study Guide (Afri 40, Fall 1999)
This is a guide to help you organize your materials and study for the exams.  This is not a comprehensive list everything that has been covered.

1) Climate and Geography: Barrier continent, rain forest, desert, savannah, ITCZ, population, malaria, tsetse fly, AIDS

Readings: GG ch 1-2; July, 3-26

2) African Communities: A) Social Organization: kinship idiom, age, gender, descent (clans, lineages, patrilineality, matrilineality, bilateral) B) Economics: hunting and gathering, pastorialism, agriculture (shifting, rotational, permanent), significance of the household and descent groups, gift economies

Readings: GG ch.  9; July 104-128; Ade Ajayi

3) African Kingdoms: Trans-Saharan trade, gold and salt, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Hausa states, Sundiata, Mansa Mussa, Uthman dan Fodio, Ibn Battuta, Swahili, Benin, Ashanti, Oyo and Ife, Dahomey, Great Zimbabwe.  Ways of learning about Africa's past.

Readings: GG ch.  3; July 47-78 (Western Sudan), 104-128 (Gulf of Guinea); Gates

4) Religion: African Traditional Religions and Islam: ATR, sorcery, witchcraft, oracles, supreme deity, ancestors, spirits, five pillars of Islam; Qu'ran; Sufism; shaikhs; baraka; winning of North Africa; era of theocracies; era of peaceful expansion; Africanization of Islam, Islamization of Africa: universalism; reordering identities; effect on families.  The development of African christianity in coastal West Africa and African Independent  Churches

Readings: GG ch. 11;  July 188-208; 252-274; Cox; Sanneh

6) The European Arrival: Portuguese exploration, arrival of the Dutch at Table Bay, arrival of French and British, impact of European trade

Readings: GG ch. 3

7) The Slave Trade:  Trans-Sahara slave trade, triangular trade (the South Atlantic System), abolition of the slave trade, effect on African societies: on politics, on African slavery, on Africa's position in a global economy.

Readings: GG ch.  3; July 252-274 (West Africa between the slave trade and partition)

Sample Essay Questions

1) Describe the principal features of African Traditional Religions (ATR) and discuss the ways in which ATRs differ from Islam.

2) Discuss the relationship that exists in African between social organization and the economy.

3) Descent groups are an important dimension of social organization in Africa.  Explain what descent groups are, then discuss the relationship between ideas about descent and political organization. Discuss at least two African societies mentioned in the lectures and/or readings in as much detail as possible.

4) Ivan Karp (author of "African Systems of Thought") pointed out that "in societies small in scale . . .  social relations are 'multiplex,' that is they tend to have many strands to them."  First, explain what Ivan Karp means by this observation.  Then, with reference to Paul Bohannan's article ("The impact of money on an African subsistence economy"), explain how 'multiplex' relationships shape production and/or exchange in African societies. [Hint: one approach is to contrast 'gift economies' with 'western economies']

5) Discuss the era of the slave trade.  In your essay you should address a) the place of the slave trade in international trade circuits, b) why the slave trade came to an end, and c) some implications of the slave trade for Africa.

6) The 'scramble for Africa' was a decisive moment in the history of the continent.  Outline the events that lead to the European partition of the continent.  Explain the theories as to why 'the partition' occurred.

7) Two important periods of European involvement with Africa were the era of slave trade and the era of colonialism.  Write an essay that compares the impact of these two eras on African societies.  Your essay should address a) the place of the slave trade and colonialism in international economic systems, b) the types of interactions that took place between Europeans and Africans during these two eras, and c) the lasting impact that the slave trade and colonialism had on African societies.

8) Each type of domination produces its own form of resistance.  Compare two expressions of African Nationalism we have discussed.  Your essay should explore the ways by which different styles of colonial rule inspired different concerns among African elites.  For the cases you choose to discuss be sure to describe a) the content of African Nationalism and b) the style of colonial rule.

9) Since Africa achieved independence the continent has been marked by political instability and economic problems.  Write an essay that examines the reasons for these problems.  Your essay should explore the relationship between political and economic problems in Africa and the continuities and discontinuities between the colonial and post-colonial eras.  Be sure to ground your discussion in the relevant chapters from Gordon and Gordon.

10) Although the French, British, and Afrikaners all engaged in the colonization of Africa the policies they followed were different.  Select two of these European powers/groups.  Compare their colonial policies.  Be sure to a) explain what these policies were, b) explore the similarities and differences between these policies, c) identify the factors that might explain why they developed different styles of administering their colonies and c) discuss how these policies provoked different types of political engagement on the part of the African peoples.

11) Pretend that you are a French, British, or South African government official.  Write an open letter to the African people who live in your territory.  In this letter justify your mission.  Explain what your government is trying to achieve, how they will achieve their goals, and why these policies and objectives will benefit the African people.

12) Imagine that you are an African woman writing a letter to an ancestor who died in 1900.  In this letter describe the ways in which your life is different from his or her life.  The first part of your letter should bring your ancestor up to date on the specific ways in which the village has changed since their time.  The second part of your letter should give your ancestor insight into current issues that affect women and in which women are involved.

13) Chose one of the short novels (Things Fall Apart, White Genesis, or The Money Order).  Write an essay on the novel.  What is the commentary that the author is presenting on current conditions in Africa?  How do you think the author would suggest that Africans transcend these conditions?  Be sure to ground your discussion in the characters and events of the novel.