HIS 532 Colonialism in West Africa

The graduate seminar seeks to enable students to acquire a broad-based understanding of the forces that shaped the trajectory of West Africa's past and present social, economic and political experiences. It traces the major development in West Africa's socio-economic and political history from the eve of colonial conquest to the present. It considers the reasons for imperialism and the theories that seek to explain it. After an examination of the reasons for European expansion into Africa, the means by which the various colonial powers sought to control their colonies and the resistance they met, we will explore the different types of colonial administration, e.g. 'indirect rule' versus 'assimilation,' and the differences in colonial labor and development policies. How ordinary men and women confronted the social, cultural and economic violence of colonial rule will also be examined. Finally, we will focus our attention on the struggle for liberation after the Second World War and the problems of independence as the new nation-states continue to face economic dependency, political instability and mounting foreign debt.

Credits

3