Reading List

 

Required Books (provided to participants)

  • Trevor Getz and Liz Clarke, Abina and the Important Men, 2nd ed. (2015).

Assigned Primary Sources (provided to participants)

  • Ibn Battuta on the Swahili Coast (1331)
  • Images and narratives in AccraWala, digital resource
  • Labourers 1916 for Cameroons Province (1916), CALPROF 5.6.242. National Archives of Enugu.
  • Niane, Djibriltamsir. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, trans. G.D. Pickett (ca. 1250)
  • Theal, George McCall. Excerpts from the “Summary of the Trial of Galant and Others,” (1825) pp. 205, 270–01, 273, 285–88, in Records of the Cape Colony from February to April 1825 Copied for the Cape Government from the Manuscript Documents in the Public Record Office, London. Vol. 20, London: 1904
  • President of the Accra Town Council to the Colonial Secretary. Letter, May 31, 1940, CSO 20/8/4 1940–47
  • Textiles and garments included in “Fabricating Archives of African History,” online exhibit. Cornell University Library.
  • William, Fadhili. “Malaika,” (ca. 1963)
  • Explore Kiswahili Proverbs, Boston University African Studies Center

Additional Primary Sources (provided to participants)

  • Abraham Cresques (attributed), sheet 6 of the Catalan Atlas (ca. 1375)
  • Leo Africanus, Accounts of Timbuktu and Songhay from The History and Description of Africa (1526)
  • Nzinga Mbemba (Alfonso I), letter to Portuguese King João III (1526)
  • Moshweshwe, “Letter to Sir George Grey” (1858)
  • Yoruba divination cup, National Museum of African Art (early to mid-20th century)
  • Jackson Kaujeua, “The Wind of Change” (1974)

In advance of the institute, project faculty will recommend additional sources, including documents, artifacts, images, and music. This set of suggested resources will include artifacts from the National Museum of African Art, the Library of Congress, and other collections in Europe and Africa.

Assigned Secondary Readings (provided to participants)

  • American Historical Association, 2016 History Discipline Core.
  • AHA, NCSS, et al, College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards
  • Amaazee, Victor Bong. “The ‘Igbo Scare’ in the British Cameroons, 1945-61,” Journal of African History 31, no. 2 (1990): 281–93.
  • Byfield, Judith. “Innovation and Conflict: Cloth Dyers and the Interwar Depression in Western Nigeria,” Journal of African History 38, no. 1 (1997): 77–99.
  • Getz, Trevor. “Teaching Methodology and Source Interpretation through the African History Course,” in A Primer for Teaching African History: Ten Design Principles (2018), 113–24,
  • Hart, Jennifer. “Of Pirate Drivers and Honking Horns: Mobility, Authority, and Urban Planning in Late-Colonial Accra,” Technology and Culture 61, no. 2 (April 2020): S49–S72.
  • Jackson, Stephen. “Introduction: A Course Burdened with the Weight of the World,” in The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1920–2021 (2023), 1–31.
  • Mitchell, Laura. “Global Context, Local Objects, and Cultural Frontiers: Unsettling South Africa’s National History in Four Moves,” Settler Colonial Studies 4, no. 2 (2014): 162–70.
  • Mugane, John M. Excerpt from The Story of Swahili (2015).
  • Reynolds, Jonathan T. “So Many Africas, So Little Time: Doing Justice to Africa in the World History Survey,” World History Connected 2, no. 1 (2004).
  • Spuy, Patricia van der. “‘Making Himself Master’: Galant’s Rebellion Revisited.” South African Historical Journal 34, no. 1 (May 1996): 1–28.
  • Terry, John T. R. “Centering Medieval Africa: Guidelines and Resources for Non-Specialist Educators,” New Chaucer Studies: Pedagogy and Profession 3, no. 2 (2022): 41–57.
  • Wainaina, Binyavanga. “How to Write About Africa,” Granta 92 (2005).

Suggested Secondary Readings

  • Erik Gilbert and Johnathan Reynolds, Africa in World History, 3rd ed. (2011).
  • Patel, Trishula. “It’s Always Time for a Cheeky Nandos: The Global Journey of an African Cuisine,” Perspectives on History (September 2023).
  • Rayner, Mary. “Wine and Slaves: The Failure of an Export Economy and the Ending of Slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa, 1806–1835.” PhD dissertation, Duke University, 1986, 174–189.
  • Reynolds, Jonathan T. “Cultural Epicureanism: Music, Morality, and the African Nation,” chapter 4 in Sovereignty and Struggle: Africa and Africans in the Era of the Cold War (2014).
  • Ross, Robert. Cape of Torments: Slavery and Resistance in South Africa. (1983), 105–16.
  • Watson, R. L. The Slave Question: Liberty and Property in South Africa. (1990), 50–59.