History 349: African Studies
Independent Study
March 2003
Instructor: Dr. Lorna L. Zukas
Phone: (800) 628-8648, ext. 5408
(714) 429-5408
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: By Appointment
Required Texts:
1. Grinker, Roy and Steiner, Christopher (eds.), Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Blackwell, 1998.
2. Dangarembga, Tsitsi: Nervous Conditions. Seal Pr Feminist Pub. You may use any edition.
This course is a critical introduction to the study of modern African society, culture, and history. The course is intended to help students develop an understanding of African societies, polities and economies through the lens of social science concepts. The diversity and quantity of African examples and experiences permit useful comparisons among a variety of cases and between theory and practice. The course examines the sources of African culture, politics and intellectual development, as well as issues in modernization and social change in contemporary African societies. Issues to be covered in the course may include social, economic, and intellectual movements including colonialism, post-colonial independence, underdevelopment, genocide, gender equality, AIDS, and the politics of international relief agencies, as well as new cultural forms of art and literature.
Course Outline:
Week 1-- Europe in Africa
Topic:—Colonialism and its impact
Reading: Please read pages 567-622 in the text.
Lugard: The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa: Methods of Ruling Native Races
Rodney: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Ranger: The Invention of Tradition in colonial Africa
Thiong’o: Detained: A Writer’s Prison Diary
Film: The Language you cry in. (The film may be borrowed from the instructor.)
Assignment: By the time of colonization, in the late 1800s, Europeans had already been in close contact with Africans for hundreds of years. Drawing on the film and the diverse set of readings above, write a 5 page paper that explains how scholars in the last thirty years have been attempting to correct [Western] misrepresentations and restore the true value and place of African culture and achievement in the sum total of human progress. Your answer should address why the study of African history today is a necessity for both Africans and non-Africans.
Week 2—Sex and Gender Studies in Africa
Topic:--Women in African Society
Reading: Please read pages 498-566 in the text and start Nervous Conditions. You may read the novel faster than suggested. However you must read chapters 1-3 this week.
Boserup: The Economics of Polygamy
Etienne: Women and Men, Cloth and Colonization
Van Allen: “Sitting on a Man” Colonialism and the Lost Political Institutions
Hansen : Body Politics: Sexuality, Gender, and Domestic Service in Zambia
Film: Femmes aux Yeux Ouverts (Women with Open Eyes).
(The film may be borrowed from the instructor.)
Assignment: 1. Begin the reading journal and answer the questions for chaps. 1-3. Please see pages 5-10 of this course outline for the questions.
2. Based on the film and the reading from the textbook, write a 5 page paper on the strengths of African women. You should explain why Africa’s development is inextricably linked to the social and economic progress of its women.
Week 3: Representations and Discourse in Africa
Topic: Ways of Seeing Africa
Reading Please read pages 679—731 in the text and Chaps 4-6 of Nervous Conditions
Comaroff: Africa Observed: Discourses of the Imperial Imagination
Owusu: Ethnography of Africa: The Usefulness of the Useless
Diop: The meaning of Our Work
Appiaha: Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism
Film: Monday’s Girls. (The film may be borrowed from the instructor.)
Assignment: Continue the reading journal—answer questions for chaps 4-6.
Week 4: Tradition and Modernity in Africa
Topic: Africa in the 21st Century
Reading: Complete the reading of Nervous Conditions (chapters 7-10)
Assignment:
Course Requirements:
5 page paper on “Rethinking African History” 25%
5 page paper on the Strengths of African Women 25%
5 page paper on Gender and Social Change 25%
Reading Journal 25%
The Student and faculty will have regular weekly meetings. These meetings may take place in person or over the phone or via video teleconferencing. Email may be used as a substitute if necessary.
Evaluation and Grading Criteria
Written Work: This is a university level undergraduate course and your writing will be evaluated at this level. In addition to adhering to proper format and style, grammar, and spelling count. Include references for all submitted written work. Make sure you proofread your work. Please refer to the Little Brown Essential Handbook for Writers for style and format questions. You may use APA or MLA style. Choose one and use it consistently.
Grading Criteria for Writing Assignments:
Note: Letter grades may be assigned to student work for any or all of the following reasons.
"C" range work is:
Acceptable achievement; meets minimum standards for course. Retains over-all focus; generally solid command of subject matter. Subject matter well explored but may show signs of under-development. Significance is understood; competent use of examples. Structure is solid, but an occasional sentence or paragraph may lack focus. Quotations and citations are integrated into argument and references are provided. Transitions between paragraphs occur but may lack originality. Competent use of language; sentences are solid but may lack development, refinement, style. Occasional minor mechanical errors may occur, but do not impede clear understanding of material. The work contains few serious grammatical or spelling errors.
"B" range work is:
Commendable achievement; exceeds minimum standards. Specific, original focus; content well-handled. Significance of content is clearly conveyed; good use of examples; sufficient support exists in all key areas. Has effective shape (organization); effective pacing between sentences or paragraphs. Quotations and citations are integrated into argument to enhance the flow of ideas. Have competent transitions between all sentences and paragraphs. Conveys a strong understanding of standard English; the writer is clear in his/her attempt to articulate main points, but may demonstrate moments of "flat" or unrefined language. The work contains very few mechanical errors.
"A" range work is:
Outstanding achievement; significantly exceeds standards. Unique topic or unique treatment of topic; takes risks with
content; fresh approach. Sophisticated/exceptional use of examples. Original and "fluid" organization; all sentences and paragraphs contribute; sophisticated transitions between paragraphs. Integration of quotations and citations is sophisticated and highlights the author's argument. Confidence in use of standard English; language reflects a practiced and/or refined understanding of syntax and usage. Sentences vary in structure; very few if any mechanical errors.
"D" range work is:
Marginal in achievement; it fails to not meet minimum standards. Significance of content is unclear. Some ideas may lack support, elaboration. Lacks sufficient examples or relevance of examples may be unclear. Support material may not be clearly incorporated into argument. Expression is occasionally awkward (problematic sentence structure). Mechanical errors may at times impede clear understanding of material. May have a few serious mechanical errors.
"F" range work is work that:
Ignores assignment. Lacks significance. Lacks coherence. Lacks focus. Difficult to follow due to awkward sentence or
paragraph development. Mechanical errors impede understanding. Problems with writing at the college level. Any work that is plagiarized.
Plagiarism is to be avoided.
The World Wide Web makes it easy to access vast amounts of information quickly. It also makes it easy to plagiarize that information, both accidentally and intentionally. Just to remind you, plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's ideas or work as one's own. An obvious form of plagiarism is intentionally stealing someone else's words. Using another person's sentence, phrase, or even a word that a person coined requires students to acknowledge the source of the sentence, phrase, or coined word. To acknowledge the source, students can either use quotation marks or paraphrase the author. In both cases, students must cite the source of the information properly. Please refer to the National University Catalog for a much longer discussion on plagiarism. Any form of plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the course.
Important Note: Students are required to cite the use of materials written by others in all communications for this course. Remember, the use of ideas, words, or phrasing without proper attribution constitutes plagiarism. The burden of proof rests on the student, not the instructor; in other words, the student will be required to prove that plagiarism has not occurred. Inadequately or improperly cited work will receive no points.
Grade Distribution: please note that a +/- grading option will be used
NERVOUS CONDITIONS: Questions
As you read this novel you will keep a reading journal. Provided for you below is a series of questions for each chapter in the book. As you read each chapter jot down the answers to these questions in your reading journal. I will collect the reading journal at the end of the course. During the course of the month I may ask you to bring in the journal for discussion purposes. Answering these questions will help you understand the institutions of patriarchy and family in African (Shona) society. Each question is designed to point out a serious or critical point in the story. Finally, answering these questions will help you write the Novel Analysis paper due at the end of the course.
Ch. 1 (pp. 1-12), Ch. 2 (pp. 13-34), and Ch. 3 (pp. 35-57)
1. The narrator Tambudzai, or Tambu, opens the novel by stating flatly, “I was not sorry when my brother died.” She later brings us back to opening moment of the novel again in chapter 3, when Nhamo is late returning from school as expected. Why isn’t Tambudzai sorry that her brother Nhamo has died? Trace the deterioration of Tambu’s relationship with Nhamo.
2. What are the burdens of womanhood, according to Tambu’s mother? Describe Tambu’s relationship with her father Jeremiah.
3. Why is Tambu’s grandmother’s “fairy tale” story of the family significant?
4. How do Tambu and the rest of the family react to Babamukuru, Maiguru, Nyasha, and Chido, all newly returned from England, at the clan gathering of chapter 3?
5. Why has Babamukuru determined that Nhamo, rather than Tambu, should come live with him at the Umtali mission and continue his education at the mission school? Why does Babamukuru decide Tambu should go to the mission school after Nhamo dies?
6. How does Tambu’s mother Mainini react to her son’s death? On what or whom does she blame his death?
7. What effect does Dangarembga’s untranslated Shona terms have on your reading of the novel? Consider especially the narrator or narrative voice of the novel: from whose perspective is the story told, and whose story is being told in the novel?
Ch. 4 (58-76) and Ch. 5 (pp. 77-102)
8. Describe Tambu’s responses and feelings when she first comes to live at the mission and go to the mission school.
9. Compare the characters of Tambu and Nyasha as they are revealed to us once the girls begin to share a room at the mission house. Describe the nature and trace the development of their friendship. Why is Tambu both attracted to and disapproving of her cousin? How do their attitudes toward Babamukuru and Maiguru differ?
10. Describe the characters and relationship of Babamukuru and Maiguru at home at the mission. Describe their relationships to their children Chido and Nyasha. Consider Tambu’s first formal interview with Babamukuru in the living room the evening of her arrival: what does it reveal about Tambu’s relationship with Babamukuru, the head of the Sigauke family?
11. Why does Tambu feel she has undergone a “reincarnation” (p. 92) at the mission? What are her successes in this new life? What transpires when she begins to menstruate?
12. Why is Tambu so surprised to learn that Maiguru has earned a master’s degree?
Ch. 6 (pp. 103-119)
13. Describe the categories of white people that Tambu observes at the mission.
14. Why do all the black African children want to go to the multiracial government schools, like the one where Chido attends? How did Chido get into that school?
15. Why is Nyasha so “nervous” about passing her Form 2 examinations? Why does she say she’d almost like to fail to see how her father would respond?
16. Trace the significant moments of the scene at the Beit Hall Christmas Party and its aftermath. Why do Nyasha and her father fight?
17. Why does Tambu say, “I was having to revise my thinking” (p. 116)?
18. Why does Nyasha seem to be “burning herself out” (p. 116)? Why does Nyasha want to resist getting “‘comfortable and used to the way things are’” (p. 117)? How has her early life in England shaped the way she is now? Interpret Tambu’s characterization of Nyasha’s conflict as “self versus surrender and the content of sin” (p. 118). What do you see as the inner conflicts for Nyasha and Tambu? How does Tambu’s thinking differ from Nyasha’s at this point?
19. In what way has Tambu saved Nyasha’s life (p. 119)? Why does Tambu admire her cousin?
Ch. 7 (pp. 120-148)
20. What reasons do you think Chido, Nyasha, Tambu, and Maiguru might have for not wanting to go to the homestead for Christmas holidays in December 1969? What are Tambu’s reactions to her return home?
21. Describe the characters and situations of Lucia and Takesure. Why is Babamukuru unhappy to see them at the homestead? What do we learn of the past history of Lucia and her sister?
22. Consider the formal scene of greetings in Mainini’s room. What is revealed by Mainini’s interactions with Nyasha, Tambudzai, Babamukuru, and Maiguru? How does Lucia behave and why?
23. The rest of the Sigauke “patriarchy” comes to the homestead for the Christmas holiday--though for Tambu it is no “holiday,” she says (p. 133): why? What do the sleeping arrangements reveal about the family hierarchy? What does the women’s work consist of?
24. Trace the important events of the parallel scenes of the dare of the family patriarchy, and the females in the kitchen. Why are all but Tete Gladys excluded from the dare? Why is mainini (Tambu’s mother) offended by Maiguru’s detachment and why is she so bitter about Maiguru? Interpret Tambu’s analysis of the women’s situation on p. 138. Interpret Nyasha’s later judgment that both Mainini Ma’Shingayi and Maiguru were showing their “suffering” p. 142).
25. What does Lucia do when she interrupts the Sigauke patriarchy’s dare? The case being discussed is initially identified by Babamukuru as Takesure’s, but Lucia and Jeremiah are drawn into the matter as parts of the family problem to be solved. What various solutions are offered to the “problem” by Tete Gladys, Takesure, Jeremiah? Why does Babamukuru object to his brother Jeremiah’s solution, and what solution does Babamukuru propose instead? Why does Babamukuru prevail?
26. How does Nyasha react to Tambu’s story of the outcome of the dare (pp. 147-148)? What does Tete Galdys conclude about the problem and the solutions (p. 148)?
Ch. 8 (pp. 149-175)
27. Why does Tambu object to her uncle’s plan that her parents have a church wedding? What are the sources of conflict for Tambu such that this business of the wedding becomes a “complex problem” (p. 151) for her? How does Tambu see herself in comparison to her cousin Nyasha? How does Babamukuru see the two girls?
28. Why does Tambu think the men have underestimated Lucia? What does Lucia do after the family dare? Why does Mainini have trouble making up her mind (p. 153)? Why does Lucia come to the mission with her sister and what is the outcome? How do Nyasha and Tambu differ in their appraisal of Babamukuru getting Lucia a job?
29. Why does her parents’ impending wedding become a “bed of confusion” (p. 165) for Tambu? What does she do the on the day of the wedding? What is Babamukuru’s reaction? What has impelled Tambu to defy her uncle on this matter of the wedding? What is her punishment?
30. Why does Maiguru fight with and then leave Babamukuru for 5 days? How does Nyasah view her mother’s leaving? Why is Nyasha disappointed when she learned where her mother has gone, and how does she react when her mother returns home with her father?
Ch. 9 (pp. 176-190)
31. Why do the nuns come to the mission school? Why is Tambu offered a place and a scholarship at the exclusive Sacred Heart convent school? Why does Nyasha think Tambu should not go? What is the process of “assimilation” she describes on p. 179? Why is Babamukuru also reluctant to let her go? How does Maiguru manage to influence her husband’s decision to let Tambu go to the convent school?
32. During Christmas vacation in December 1970, Maiguru refuses to go and stay at the homestead: why? Why does Babamukuru decide to let Tambu go to the convent school? What is Tambu’s mother’s reaction to the news? What role does Lucia play in helping Tambu take another step toward what she calls her “freedom”?
33. How does Tambu respond to others’ constant refrain that she not “forget” (p. 188)? What might Tambu be in danger of forgetting and why? Why does Tambu think she cannot “forget”?
34. Describe the state of Nyasha’s relationship with her father at the point when Tambu leaves for the convent school.
Ch. 10 (pp. 191-204)
35. How does Tambu respond to Sacred Heart when she first arrives? How does she view “my new life” (p. 191)? Why isn’t she missing Nyasha during her first term?
36. Describe Nyasha’s letters to Tambu while she is away at school, especially the “serious letter” (p. 196). Tambu sees little of Nyasha during her first term break, but in what state does she find Nyasha at the August holiday? Examine Nyasha’s break down (pp. 200-202): what do you think causes it? How does Tambu’s mother account for Nyasha’s break down and many of the other family problems she relates to “Englishness” (pp. 202-203)? What “suspicion” enters Tambu’s mind on p. 203?
37. Tambu tells us “seeds do grow” p. 203: what does she mean? Why does she no longer accept Sacred Heart as the “sunrise on my horizon”? Interpret the narrator’s closing statements, pp. 203-204. Where do you suppose Tambudzai is now and what might she be doing, at the time when she “set down this story”? What do you imagine that “long and painful process” of “expansion” over many years has meant to Tambudzai?
38. For what purpose(s) do you think Dangarembga has “appropriated”* the white man’s education, language, and literary forms in writing this novel? In what sense might you consider Nervous Conditions a female “response” to African male novels like Things Fall Apart? How do you think Dangarembga sees her role as an African storyteller?
39. Identify what you interpret to be major theme(s) of Nervous Conditions. Does this title seem appropriate to you? Why or why not?