28760 - History and Institutions of Africa

Learning outcomes

With this course the student will acquire a deep knowledge of the main aspects of the modern history of Africa. The student will also understand and work with the sources for the history of Africa through the use of both the classical and of the most recently developed methodological tools of the  historical research on Africa. He/she will also become able to discuss autonomously the main issues related to the modern history of the African continent.

Course contents

The aim of the course is to provide a specific knowledge of the main themes related to the colonial period and the postcolonial State in Africa. Lessons and seminars focus on :
Colonized Africa; Africa at end of colonial rule; the social , economic and political context of decolonisation; the ideologies of the decolonisation and panafricanism; nationalism and state- building; the crisis of the postcolonial state.

Readings/Bibliography

J. Iliffe, Popoli dell'Africa. Storia di un continente, Bruno Mondadori, Milano, 2007
V. Piacentini Fiorani, Processi di decolonizzazione in Asia e Africa, Milano, ISU, 2000(solo la parte sull'Africa)
T. Negash, L'Etiopia entra nel terzo millennio, Aracne, 2009, (chapter 3)
One volume among the following: I. Taddia, Russian etnographers and the Horn of Africa (20th century) Maria Veniaminovna Right: "My fifty years with Ethiopia", L'Harmattan Italia, Torino, 2008; K. Pallaver, Un'altra Zanzibar. Schiavitù, colonialismo e urbanizzazione a Tabora (1840-1916), FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2010; E. Vezzadini, The 1924 Revolution: Hegemony, Resistance and Nationalism in the Colonial Sudan, Allkopi, University of Bergen, Norway (the text is available on line)
For the students attending the lectures, the programm will be agreed upon during the course

Teaching methods

seminars and workhops for undergraduates and  Ph.D students

Assessment methods

oral exam

Teaching tools

archival films, literary texts, power point

Office hours

See the website of Irma Taddia