AFRO1021

Through a close engagement with selected oral, visual, audio-visual, and written sources, this course interrogates the representation of Africa as�a failed and passive site, hopelessly mired in poverty and ill-equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century. Using the lens of gender as a critical category, the course specifically considers the ways in which African women have distinguished themselves in the areas of politics, the economy, culture, education, and other fields. The historical lens that informs and underpins this course is premised on the understanding that people make change, and that change does not just happen in and of itself. In recognizing the process of change over time, AFRO 1021 demonstrates that African women have played a pivotal role in the dynamic changes that have transformed the continent and its diverse societies.�More importantly, African women have always defined and carried out their own struggles, always been on the frontline of agitating for socio-economic and political reforms, and always played critical leadership roles in their families, communities, and civil society. In addition to stressing the importance of change over time, AFRO 1021 engages students in a reflection of the past to understand those reflections within the continuum of past, present, and future.