African History and Institutions

Students at the conclusion of the course/study, will understand the impact of the colonial "event" suffered by the different peoples of Africa, endowed with their own political, economic, social and cultural structures. They will refine some ability to recognize and articulate the diversity of human experience, including the meanings attached to categories such as "ethnicity" or "race", as well as the different sociopolitical and economic patterns compared, to produce historical analyses independently. They will understand the link between the historical legacy of competition for control and management of natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa, from the commodification of human resources to the globalized commodification of resources by the developmentalist state. Developing the ability to think critically and historically when discussing cultural conflicts and institutional stratifications in the past and their consequences in the present is a legitimate expectation in the third year of a political science course.

Students should achieve an understanding of the impact caused by the Colonial course, on different African peoples with their own social, cultural and political structures in past environments. They are expected to demonstrate a certain measure of ability to recognize and articulate the diversity of human experience, including ethnicity, race, language and/or gender, articulating them in the tensions between different socio-political and economic models, by producing their own historical analyses. They should be able to range from the colonial exploitation to the bureaucratic patrimonialism of the independent states, to the competition for control, management and redistribution of the natural resources along with the global trends in Africa, and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, on behalf of the developmental state. Such a capacity to think critically and historically when discussing the cultural conflicts and institutional stratification in the past, and their consequences in the present, has to be expected in students in their third year in a political sciences course degree.