AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Instructor Info:

Dr. Amanda Lewis

323G Old Main

amanda.lewis@usu.edu

Office Hours:

Wednesday 10-12 (and

by appointment)

Grading Scale

A 100-93

A– 92-90

B+ 89-87

B 86-83

B– 82-80

C+ 79-77

C 76-73

C– 72-70

D+ 69-67

D 66-60

F 59-0

Matapato Hills, Zimbabwe

Course Description This course will explore the intersection of the history of Africa, science, and the environment. Throughout the semester, we will discuss how African environments have shaped the course of history as well as how people have formed these envi-ronments. We will also discover the many forms of science on the continent, start-ing from European involvement in the slave trade to what feeds your morning stim-ulant addiction. Throughout the course, you will encounter different systems of knowledge, complicated power dynamics of science, and images of African land-scapes and animals which will require you to think critically about how history has been written and presented.

Course Objectives Understand interaction of people and the environment in African history.

Understand the impact of science on Africa as well as Africa’s influence on science.

Understand how African history is situated in the history of the world.

Develop critical thinking and writing skills based on evidence and informed opinions.

Gain confidence in communicating ideas in public settings.

Develop skills related to research and writing.

HIST 3530 Spring 2016

Assignments You will have several assignments throughout the semester, so it is important you

keep up with readings and what is going on in class each week. Some assign-

ments are long-term assessments and some are short-term. Time-management is

key to your overall success in this course.

Weekly Reading Responses 20% Every Thursday, you will turn in a one page, single-spaced reading response to

the week’s readings. (1-inch margins; Times New Roman, size 12) You may be

given a prompt, but some week’s may be free writes. On Thursday, you will bring

the response printed out to class. Emailed responses will not be accepted. Your

presence is required to turn it in. You have two free passes. Having these ready

for class will aid your participation in class discussion and understanding of the

lecture.

Participation 25 % This is an active learning classroom. Your active participation makes the course

more engaging, fun, and productive. In this class, participation means more than

answering the professor’s questions; you will be a peer teacher and researcher.

There are several ways to earn participation points throughout the semester. You

can find a detailed description on Canvas, but a few examples include: daily active

engagement in class discussion, 5 minute flash presentations of a new idea or in-

depth study of previous one, or engaging in online discussion on Canvas.

Required Texts John Parker and Richard

Rathbone. African History: A Very

Short Introduction. New York Ox-

ford University Press, 2007.

Robert Harms. Games against

Nature: An Eco-Cultural History of

the Nunu of Equatorial Africa. New

York: Cambridge University Press,

1987.

Rich, Jeremy. Missing Links: The

African and American Worlds of

R.L. Garner, Primate Collector.

Athens: University of Georgia

Press, 2012.

C.1766

Collecting fuelwood, Nyandarua Forest, Kenya, c. 1905

Academic Honesty

I expect students to abide by

the policies on academic

honesty outlined by Utah

State University. Review this

statement of USU policy on

cheating, falsification, and

plagiarism. http://

bit.ly/1QWikGS

Other USU Re-sources

Academic Success Center

Writing Center

Counseling and Psychologi-

cal Services

Prof Mark Damen’s Writing

Guide

Useful Aca-demic Tools

Zotero

Evernote

Using natural resources to building homes, Lesotho

Mid-Term Critical Analysis 25% You will write a 5-6 page essay, analyzing the major themes of the course. Over

the course of the first half of the semester, you should pay attention to how the

readings, videos, and class discussions address the major themes of the course.

Then, in this essay, you will analyze how these themes inform African history and

the history of science and the environment. Consider these questions as you

write: How do the themes transcend geographic boundaries? How have your per-

ceptions of race and gender changed over the course of the semester? What role

do scientists have in politics? How do politics and environmental issues inform

each other? What role have Africans and Europeans had in the production of

knowledge of science/environment? These are not the only questions you might

consider, but serve as a starting point. The essay should conclude with your as-

sessment on future work for historians of Africa, science, and the environment.

Landscape Portfolio 30% Throughout the course we will be discussing the ways in which Africans interact

with the landscape, but this idea of landscape itself has much meaning. You will

identify an African landscape to research, explore, and report on in a Landscape

Portfolio. In a portfolio, you will examine your chosen location in many different

ways throughout the semester using Evernote as your online portfolio. You will

share this with the professor and as due dates arise, upload each component.

Further details for this assignment can be found on Canvas.

African Links

Africa is a Country

AllAfrica.com

BBC News —Africa

New York Times—Africa

The Story of Africa (BBC)

Environmental Links

Anthropocene Maps

Mongabay

Environmental Investiga-

tion Agency

Class Policies Everyone’s behavior affects our learning environment. Please arrive on time

and do not begin to pack up until our session is over. If you need to come in

late or leave early, please sit at the back or edge of the room so as not to

disrupt the class.

Please limit the use of computers in the classroom. Research has shown that

students do better in class when they write notes by hand rather than on a

computer.

Phones should be completely silent. Even phones on vibrate are distracting.

The use of phones for photography or recording is not allowed. Late assignments: Late essays will be deducted 10% for each day late up to

one week. After 7 days, the assignment will not be accepted.

No attendance taken. Recognize that it pays to show up regularly. In class,

you hear the particular points of a lecture as well as the general context in

which those points are raised. One without the other usually leads to prob-

lems on exams.

Ask questions. If you are confused, please do not hesitate to ask in class or

during office hours.

In class, I expect you to focus your attention on the lecture and discussion.

Chatting with neighbors, reading newspapers, answering your phone, brows-

ing the Internet, updating Facebook or Twitter, or sleeping are all great things,

but not in the classroom. In the classroom, they are rude and distracting.

Worse still, they break down the mutual respect between students and teach-

er.

By attending regularly, you do not depend on someone else’s notes – notes

that might turn out to be awful. In class, you can work on a skill that the non-

attender never develops: note-taking abilities. You cannot sharpen this skill

just by copying notes but only by doing the work yourself: be a good listener,

become familiar with materials in its entirety, and learning to discern, organ-

ize, and inter-relate the critical components of an argument. I cannot empha-

size the importance of these skills inside and outside the university.

Course Schedule The course schedule can be found on Canvas. Keep up with readings for each

class, and check this page regularly. The schedule and reading list is subject to

change, but I will post announcements if I make any alterations. I believe it is best

to print out articles and excerpted readings. Always bring the readings with you to

class.

I suggest that in addition to having the weekly reading reflection, you also have

your own notes on the reading. You should also have some ideas (probably writ-

ten down) on issues/topics/questions you might raise in class discussion ready

before coming to class. Review lecture notes before coming to class.

Check Canvas for further information on assignments, announcements, and updates.

Course Schedule (Tentative)

January 12/14 The African Continent – Landscapes in History

Tuesday: Introduction to the course, assignments, and responsibilities

Thursday: Overview of African history

Reading: Very Short Introduction Chapters 1-3.

January 19/21 The African Continent continued

Tuesday: Overview of African History & Environmental History

Read Gregory Maddox, “Africa and Environmental History,” Environmental History, 4:2 (1999), 162-167.

Thursday: Sourcing Africa History

Read: John Edward Philips, “What is African History?” in Writing African History, ed. John Edward Philips, (Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2005), 25-45.

January 26/28 The Nunu of Central Africa

Tuesday: Read through page 80 of Games Against Nature

Thursday: Jigsaw Reading of chapters 5-9 of GAN. We will assign chapters the week be-

fore. Peer teaching of Nunu’s interaction with the environment.

February 2/4 The Introduction European Perspectives on the Environment and Resources

Tuesday: Conclusion of GAN. Read through end of book.

Thursday: Read Parker & Rathbone, chapter 4; Judith Carney, “African Food Crops and the Guinea Trade,” in In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World, 46-64.

February 9/11: Introduction to Colonial Science

Tuesday: Scramble for Africa and the scattering of scientists

Read Parker & Rathbone Chapter 5; Helen Tilley, “African Environmental Science: The Afri-can Research Survey, Ecological Paradigms & British Colonial Development” in Social Histo-ry & African Environments eds. William Beinart and Joann McGregor, 109-130.

Thursday: Birds of a Feather? African knowledge & European science

Read Nancy Jacobs, “The Intimate Politics of Ornithology in Colonial Africa,” Journal for the Comparative Study of Society and History, 2006, 564-603.

February 16/18 Race, Gender, and Science in Africa

Tuesday: Sara Baartman – race and gender intersect on one person

Video: In class, we will watch the video The Life and Times of Sara Baartman. (52 mins)

Thursday: Images of race and gender

Read Donna Haraway, “Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-1936” in Primate Visions, 26-58.

February 23/25 Agricultural Control

Tuesday: British agricultural schemes

Reading: David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Conservation in East Africa during the 1930s," African Affairs: Journal of the Royal African Society 83(1984): 321-43.

Thursday: Southern Africa – Politics in the soil

Reading: Kate Showers, Chapter 1, “A History of Lesotho from a Soil Perspective, 1500-1980 in Imperial Gullies: Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho, 9-41.

March 1/3 King Leopold’s Rubber Kingdom

Tuesday: The backdoor of the scramble for Africa

Video: Part 1 of “White King, Red Rubber, Black Death”

Thursday: The fall of King Leopold’s Kingdom

Video: Part 2 of “White King, Red Rubber, Black Death”

Mid-term critical analysis due.

March 8/10 Spring Break—No Class

March 15/17 From Appalachia to Africa—Richard Garner, Primatologist

Tuesday: A Southerner in Gabon

Reading: Rich, Introduction through Chapter 3 of Missing Links

Thursday: Primates and colonial images

Reading: Finish Missing Links, Chapters 4-7;

March 22/24 Post-Colonial African Environments

Tuesday: Fortress Conservation

Read Parker & Rathbone, Chapter 6; Carruthers, Jane. “Creating a National Park, 1910 to 1926.” Journal of Southern African Studies 15, no. 2 (1989): 188–216.

Thursday: Community based conservation

Reading: W.K. Lindsay, “Integrating parks and pastoralists: Some Lessons from Am-boseli,” in Conservation in Africa: People, Policies, and Practice, eds. David Anderson and Richard Grove.

March 29/31 African Wildlife

Tuesday: Hunting

Reading: Kaltenborn, Bjørn P, Julius W Nyahongo, and K Margrethe Tingstad. “The Na-ture of Hunting Around the Western Corridor of Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.” Eu-ropean Journal of Wildlife Research 51, no. 4 (December 2005): 213–222.

Thursday Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey in context

Reading: Read through the articles and examine the images of The Jane Goodall Ar-chive at National Geographic http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/gombe-hub

& The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International http://gorillafund.org/Page.aspx?pid=377 . Finally, what can you find on ngs.com about Fossey?

April 5/7 African “Traditions” in a Modern World

Tuesday: Pastoralism

Reading: Katherine Homewood and W.A. Rodgers, “Pastoralism, conservation, and the overgrazing controversy,” in Conservation in Africa, 111-126.

Thursday: African knowledge systems in a modern context

Reading: M.P. Simbotwe, “African Realities and Western Expectations” in Voices from Africa, 15-21.

April 12/14 Energy Consumption in Africa

Tuesday: Deforestation

Reading: Michaelson, Marc. “Wangari Maathai and Kenya’s Green Belt Movement: Ex-ploring the Evolution and Potentialities of Consensus Movement Mobilization.” Social Problems 41, no. 4 (November 1, 1994): 540–561.

Thursday: Alternative Energy

Reading: I.M., Bugaje. “Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in Africa: A Review.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 10, no. 6 (December 2006): 603–612.

April 19/21 Our Caffeine Addiction

Tuesday Coffee

Read Parrish, Bradley D, Valerie A Luzadis, and William R Bentley. “What Tanzania’s Coffee Farmers Can Teach the World: a Performance‐based Look at the Fair Trade–free Trade De-bate.” Sustainable Development 13, no. 3 (July 1, 2005): 177–189. Also, investigate the world of fair trade/ organic coffee in Africa. Bring issues to discuss in class.

Thursday: Tea

Read Mike, Faber. “Tea Estate Rehabilitation in Tanzania.” World Development 23, no. 8 (August 1995): 1335–1347.

April 26/28 Student Presentations of Landscape Portfolios

You will be assigned to present on Tuesday or Thursday. You must be present both days to re-

ceive full credit for your presentation.