HIST 193
Black Power Abroad: Decolonization in Africa, the Caribbean and Europe Fall 2009
Division II Writing Skills Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed AFR 193
This is not the current course catalog

Barack Obama’s recent successful bid for the Presidency has reminded Americans of the strong links between African-Americans and Africans and of the international dimensions of the struggle for racial justice. This struggle has its roots in the post-World War II transformation of the world associated with the decolonization struggles led by individuals like Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Franz Fanon, C.L.R. James, Walter Rodney and Aime Cesaire. This course will examine this movement, focusing on activists in the Caribbean and Africa, the new ideas and cultural movements they inspired (Pan-Africanism, Negritude), their organizational activities in London and Paris, and their success in breaking free of European imperialism only to be confronted with American and Russian Cold War rivalry. By comparing and contrasting four different experiences of independence–British Guiana, the French Caribbean, Ghana, and South Africa–this course will grapple with the ways in which racism, political power, and cultural difference affected relations between Blacks, mulattoes, whites, and Indians in these countries as they fought for independence. Students will videochat with some of their peers in South Africa on a biweekly basis and do an oral history project on American anti-apartheid activities with an eye to seeing the similarities and differences between U.S. and South African race relations and developing empathy for their peers abroad. The comparative and transatlantic scope of this course, combined with its focus on race relations, power, and privilege helps it meet the requirements of the Exploring Diversity Initiative.