Contemporary Africa: opportunities and challenges(Z) 3600-7-AFS4-CAOC(Z)
The course aims at presenting a choice of important political and social issues of contemporary Africa. The situation in Africa today is strongly related to its colonial past and period of decolonisation, thus the first part of the course will concentrate on main trends of constructing independent Africa.
The second part of winter semester will be devoted to contemporary intellectual debates by Africans. For this part of the course the students will be required for each class to read 1-2 texts by African authors which correspond to the various intellectual debates in today's Africa. The texts will be then discussed during class.
The course will be continued in spring semester with presenting further discussions on migrations, human rights in Africa, different aspects of conflicts and basing information on international relations of African countries.
Type of course
Mode
Remote learning
Course coordinators
Term 2024Z: | Term 2023Z: |
Learning outcomes
Knowledge: the graduate knows and understands
* to an in-depth degree selected problems and foundations of the transformation processes in contemporary Africa in a comparative perspective including terminology in the field of African studies
* to an in-depth degree selected problems of cultures and societies in a selected region of Africa (in the field of ideology, culture and religion)
Skills: the graduate is able to
* to an in-depth degree selected problems of cultures and societies in a selected region of Africa (in the field of ideology, culture and religion)
* analyze and evaluate the importance of cultural influence on the activities of institutions, the emergence of armed conflicts, the existence of customs, rituals and symbols
* apply detailed knowledge about the state of research in the field of selected issues relating to sub-Saharan Africa to seek solutions to specific research problems
* apply methods of analysis, interpretation and evaluation of phenomena and products of sub-Saharan African cultures
Social competencies: the graduate is ready to
* critically evaluate the content resulting from cultural and linguistic diversity and its influence on the shaping of social and political attitudes and economic processes
* initiate activities for the public interest and to think and act in an entrepreneurial way using knowledge in the field of cultural diversity
Assessment criteria
The assesment will be based on written test and participation during classes.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: