Lectures and Seminars

The lectures are the most common form of teaching, and are done by researchers and teachers. They should complement and deepen perspectives, questions and themes that are presented in the literature.

Hence, the lectures do not summarize the course literature - you read the course literature yourself. But the lectures will contextualise and resonate with the literature and the course content at large. The lectures support your own reading.

It is not allowed to record the lectures without the teacher's explicit permission. If so, you can only use the recording for your own study purpose and not for spreading the lectures, power-points or other course material to other persons.

While the schedule is available here, this is the section where the most updated information will be found.

Week 1, 2025

Monday 20 January, 11:15-13:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin

Jennifer Lorin: Introduction to the course.

Thursday 23 January, 09:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: What is African Studies today? – Contextualizing the Study of, in, and with Africa

Literature:

Lonsdale, J. 2005. African Studies, Europe & Africa. Africa Spectrum 40(3), 377-402.
Allman, J. 2018. #HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968. African Studies Review 62(3), 6-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2019.40 Accessed: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/732722 (the same text was given as a lecture in the 2018 ASA conference and can be listened here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSb_N2Ly8VY)
Mama, A. 2007. Is It Ethical to Study Africa? Preliminary Thoughts on Scholarship and Freedom. African Studies Review 50(1), 1-26 or https://www.jstor.org/stable/20065338?seq=1.
Hammar, A. 2021. Why African Studies Matters? Nordic Journal of African Studies 30(3). Accessed: https://www.njas.fi/njas/article/view/803/570.

Monday 27 January, 10:15-12:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: Images of Africa, African Images

Literature:

This novel should be read during the first two weeks for the seminar on February 6:

Gyasi, Y. 2017. Homegoing. London: Penguin Books, 2017. ISBN 9780241242728 (Also available in Swedish: Vända Hem ISBN 9789113070964). Stockholm: Nordstedts.

Week 2, 2025:

Tuesday 28 January, 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Niklas Edenmyr

Niklas Edenmyr: Introduction to African languages

Literature:

Sands, Bonny, ’Africa’s Linguistic Diversity’, Language and Linguistics Compass 3/2 (2009): 559–580, https://uub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/46LIBRIS_UUB/j5a52a/cdi_openaire_primary_doi_eaa4e920b2568b2e7fbb4f869d7a1dc3
Skattum, Ingse, 'Language and Education', in Vossen, Rainer, and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds), The Oxford Handbook of African Languages, Oxford Handbooks (2020), 821–832, https://uub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/46LIBRIS_UUB/j5a52a/cdi_openaire_primary_doi_16a402af41d0af4a6427eede00f46e45
Sure, Kembo, 'Language Policy and Politics', in Vossen, Rainer, and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds), The Oxford Handbook of African Languages, Oxford Handbooks (2020), 813–820, https://uub.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/46LIBRIS_UUB/j5a52a/cdi_openaire_primary_doi_6afe0e3ace9153da632bf343f245e030 Links to an external site.

Thursday 30 January, 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Anneli Ekblom

Anneli Ekblom: Landscape History and Historical Ecologies of Africa

Literature:

Ekblom, A. 2015. Archaeology, historical sciences and environmental conservation. In: Stump, D., Isendahl, C. ed. Oxford Handbook of historical Ecology and Applied Archaeology. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 72–90. Here
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach. 1995. Reading forest history backwards: the interaction of policy and local land use in Guinea’s forest-savanna mosaic, 1893-1993. Environment and History 1, 55-91. Here

Week 3, 2025:

Tuesday 4 February, 11:15-13:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism in Perspective

Literature:

Greene, S.E. 2003. Whispers and Silences: Explorations in African Oral History. Africa Today 50(2), 41-53 : Here
Mudimbe, V.Y. Discourse of Power and Knowledge of Otherness. In Grinker, R.R., S.C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 55-60.
Ranger, T. 1983. The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa. In Grinker, R.R., S.C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 450-461.

This novel should be read for this seminar session:

Gyasi, Y. 2017. Homegoing. London: Penguin Books, 2017. ISBN 9780241242728 (Also available in Swedish: Vända Hem ISBN 9789113070964). Stockholm: Nordstedts.

Thursday 6 February, 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Sten Hagberg

Sten Hagberg: On Ethnicity, Culture, and ’Tribe’

Literature:

- Evans-Pritchard, E.E. The Nuer: Time and Space. In Grinker, R.R., C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 71-82.
- Hagberg, S. Ethnic Identification in Voluntary Associations: The politics of development and culture in Burkina Faso. In: Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa (eds) H. Englund and F.B. Nyamnjoh. London: Zed.
- Grinker, R.R., C. Lubkemann och C. Steiner. 2010 From Tribe to Ethnicity: Kinship and Social Organization. In Grinker, R.R., S.C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 63-70.
- Southall, A. W. The Illusion of Tribe. In Grinker, R.R., C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 83-94.
- Vail, L. Ethnicity in Southern African History. In Grinker, R.R., C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 95-107.

⚠️ Thursday 6 February,15:00, Online

⚠️ Paper (see details here : This month in Africa seminar - Afro 1) for 6 February, 15:00!

Friday 7 February, 14:15-16:30, Online

Jennifer Lorin & Sten Hagberg: This month in Africa seminar

⚠️Online : Zoom meeting :

https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/69271204124.

To prepare, students read about Africa in the media and present news in relation to the course themes.

Week 4, 2024

Tuesday 11 February , 11:15-13:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: Neo/colonialism, post/de/colonialism

Literature:

Grinker, R. R., S. C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner. Part IX: Europe in Africa: Colonization: Introduction (pages 423-430). In Grinker, R.R., S.C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Rodney, W. 2010. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. In Grinker, R.R., C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Afisi, O. T. 2017. Neocolonialism. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed: https://www.iep.utm.edu/neocolon/
Appiah, K. A. 2010. Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism. In Grinker, R.R., C. Lubkemann and C. Steiner (eds) Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 48-54.
Lee, M. C. 2006. The 21st Century Scramble for Africa, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 24:3, 303-330. Accessed: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589000600976570.

Thursday 13 February 10:00-11:00, The Nordic Africa Institute, Villavägen 6.

Jennifer Lorin: Visit to the library and introduction to bibliographic research.

Thursday 13 February, 13h

Home Exam published at Studium.

Week 5, 2024: Course Exam

Friday 21 February

Upload Home Exam at Studium, deadline 17:00.

The power-point presentations for the course will uploaded here during the course

Afro 1 - S1 - Introduction.pptx

Afro 1 - S2 - What is African Studies.pptx

Afro 1 - S3 - Images.pptx

Afro 1 - S4 - Languages.pdf

Afro 1 - S5 - Landscape.pdf

Afro1 - S6 - Slave Trade.pptx

Afro1 - S7 - Ethnicity, Culture, and "Tribe"

Afro1 - S8 - De-Neo-Colonialism / Afro-Euro-Centrism