Ho Technical University

(Department of Multidisciplinary Studies)

AFS 100: African Studies

Africa in the Diaspora

Dr. Bright Lumor, Mensah

Lecturer, HTU
Ho
0209197306
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 Course requirements
• Assessments for African Studies
• Continuous assessment 40% of total score
• Final exam 60% of total score

• Course activities
• Formal instruction/ lectures
• Mid semester tests
• Mandatory end of semester university examination

Attendance is compulsory
All phones must be muted or switched off
Discussion is allowed .

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Lesson One: Nature and Scope of African Studies

Learning objectives
The course aims to help students to:
 Discuss what it means to be an African. What constitutes an African Identity
(Diversity and Demography)
 Appreciate the representations and misrepresentations/ stereotypes of Africa
 Identify the nature, scope, and sources of African Studies
 Discuss the multi-disciplinary nature of African Studies
 Identify the reasons/ benefits for studying African Studies
 Diversity and Demography of Africa

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Content: Nature and Scope of African Studies
1.0 Introduction

2.0 Understanding Africa. Who is an African?

3.0 Misrepresentations of Africa

4.0 African contribution to civilization

5.0 What is African Studies?

6.0 Sources of African Studies

7.0 Relevance of African Studies

8.0 Some questions for discussion 4

 Introduction: African Studies
• The story of the origin of humankind
begins with the evolution of the
human species in Africa.

• Despite being the first continent of

settlement, Africa continues to be
the least developed and respected.

• What does Africa mean to you?

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 Introduction: Africa

i. Pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa did experience state formation and that this formation
resulted in states that existed before the Scramble at the end of the 19th century.

ii. The arrival of the Europeans, which undoubtedly is a significant chapter of African history,
does not define Africa History but rather confuses what African history is.

iii. In recent discourses, Eurocentric concepts and metrics are used to define and evaluate Pre-
colonial Africa with adverse impacts on African History.

iv. It is more prudent that pre-colonial Africa states will be studied if one intends to create a
clearer picture of the pre-colonial African states.

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Who is an African?

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Who is an African?
How are African Identities constructed in the face of the various diversities on
the continent?
• Legal - e.g. citizenship, parentage, naturalization
• Race?
• Continent?
• Conceptual/Allegiance- Philosophical: shared value systems & worldviews
for example, “Ubuntu” – I am because we are; Belief in the ancestors
• Cultural:- tangibles (buildings, monuments, artifacts); -intangibles (skills;
highly developed oral traditions; knowledge systems, etc.)
• People of African descent? Large concentrations in Northern & Southern
America, the Caribbean. Also found in India, the Middle East
• Political? The African Union

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The African Union
How do the diversities on the continent interface with
citizenship on the continent?
• The African Union (AU) is a union of 54 countries in
Africa. Morocco rejoined the African Union as the 55th
country since 2017.
• The AU was established on 26 May 2001 in Addis
Ababa and launched on 9 July 2002 in South Africa,
with the aim of replacing the Organisation of African
Unity (OAU).
To what extent do these people consider themselves as
Africans?
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 Identify 10
countries in
Africa

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 Identify the following countries on the map
Identify the following countries on the blank map of Africa provided:
A) Egypt
B) Ethiopia
C) Madagascar
D) Nigeria

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 African Map

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African (Mis)representations
• Continent without history?
• A people with no civilization?
• (savages, barbarians, primitives)
• Africa is the ‘Dark’ continent?
• Africans have inferior minds?
• Africa’s development is the burden of the European

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Based of these misrepresentations, two narratives
emerge to explain Africa’s worse condition. These
are the;
• Except Africa Narrative
• The Doomsday Narrative
Except Africa Narrative-Development works
everywhere in the world but not in Africa. Therefore
Africa has to change rather than that development
policies should be tailored to better meet the
needs of the continent.
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Africa the continent of crisis
• Doomsday narratives-There is crisis of
overpopulation in Africa. Poverty, drought, over
utilization of scarce resources, environmental
crisis, corruption, ethnic tensions, civil wars all of
which are resulting in a terrible crisis that requires
external interventions to halt. The solution has to
come from outside since African states are not
competent enough to solve problems they
[themselves] have created.
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 What are some examples of positive
African contributions to the world?
Contemporary Africa has contributed positively to global
knowledge production and civilization in many areas including
the following:
• Agriculture- Coffee originated wholly in Africa. There are three
types of coffee Arabica (originated in Ethiopia) Robusta
(originated in Congo) and Liberica (originated in Liberia)
• Academics- Africans such as Prof. Nii Narku Quaynor of
Ghana is one of the Pioneers of designing and developing the
internet
• Business- Ethiopian Airlines: A Successful Commercial venture
in current times.
• Science and Technology: Thomas Mensah of Ghana
(contributed towards the development of Nano technology
What is African Studies
• A multidisciplinary academic study of Africa and the African diaspora that is
formally organized. It covers aspects of geography, economics, archeology,
politics, history, literature, music and dance, food, linguistics etc.
• Although the study of Africa must focus on Africa and its peoples, Alpers
and Roberts (2002:13) argue that it should also encompass the study of
Africans in African diasporas and the location of Africa in its global context,
both historically and contemporaneously.
• It is the study of the historical, geographical, socio-economics and cultural
as well as the political institutions of the Africa from the earliest to modern
time
• It is the study of what African civilization has contributed to and borrowed
from world civilization and mankind
• Our focus in this class is the Africa in the Diaspora

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Sources of African Studies
Documentary sources includes
• Archaeological information is obtained through the
excavation of specially selected sites, e.g. Ife Bronze
works, Zimbabwe ruins, Pharaonic pyramids.
• Museums
• Archives
• Libraries
• Film footages
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 Archives

Museums
Sources of African Studies
Non-documentary sources
• Oral traditions and Oral History
• Folklore
• This includes all traditional knowledge and beliefs
of cultures without no written language that
are transmitted by word of mouth and actions.

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Relevance of African Studies in Modern
Time
• Helps us to know who we are, where we are coming from and where
we are going as a people.
• Learn from some of the past mistakes that led to the interruption of our
history by foreign powers. Remove the condition of self hate, inferiority
complex and lack of confidence among young Africans.
• Begin to see the possibilities in Africa and take a look at the world
through the eyes of Africa. Propose ideas, histories, and literature that
can serve as a framework for analyzing current events and propounding
solutions from an African perspective.
• To assist learners in appreciating and taking pride in the cultural, social,
and economic achievements that his continent and people have made
to the growth of world civilization in general.

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Relevance of African Studies Cont’d
• Generate competent, broad-minded, and well-informed
leaders who understand and respect their countrymen's
underlying socio-economic and environmental
challenges and demands, and who devote their
energies, skills, and brain power to solving those
problems.
• To be able to produce scholars that may be able to
investigate the African background and find problems,
values, and potentials that can be used to enrich African
life and civilization to rediscover Africa potential in the
immediate future.
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Sample Questions
• Why do we have to study African Studies
• Discuss three main sources of African Studies
• What are the (mis)representations of Africa

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References
• Mokhoathi, J (2021) “I am an African”: A
philosophical enquiry of Identity and Culture Journal
of Black Studies. pp 1-7
• Asante, M. K. (2018). The history of Africa: The
quest for eternal harmony. Routledge.
• Shillington, K. (1995). A History of Africa: JD Fage.
Macmillan International Higher Education.

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