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General Guidelines

In this class, I expect you to be civil with one another and with me, in order to show your respect for the learning process. This means that I ask you not to disrupt the activity in the class (through the ringing of cell phones, talking to one another, leaving the room in the middle of the period, etc.). In class discussions, I request that you be respectful of and listen to one another's contributions, sharing your disagreements publicly rather than privately. If this proves difficult for you, I will request a meeting with you to find strategies by which you can contribute to class appropriately.

All papers should be typed on a word-processor in 12-point font, double-spaced, with standard one-inch margins and page numbers. Please put your name, date, course name or number, my name, and the title of the paper on the first page. Please avoid using funky fonts or colors other than black: these strain my eyes. I'd recommend Times New Roman, Courier, Arial, or similar fonts. Always print out an additional final copy for your records.

I WILL NOT ACCEPT ASSIGNMENTS AFTER THE DEADLINE. Obsessively back-up all your computer files for this course and keep paper copies of all your work. Stock up on back-up media (floppy or zip disks), paper, and printer ink.

As you will note, I have not taken into account religious holidays. If you have a conflict with any of the dates for the assignments because of your religious background and beliefs, please see me the first week of class and we will arrange something convenient for both of us.

Assignments

Attendance and Participation in Class

A good participation grade can be achieved by coming to class on time every day and participating in the discussion, drawing on your insights and questions about the readings, in a polite and engaged way.

A definition of an excused absence is that 1) I am informed prior to class that you will be unable to make it; and 2) on the day that you return, you provide me with documentation for your absence. If these two conditions are not met, your absence will be considered unexcused.

If I find your participation in class to be disruptive (through cellphone ringing, talking, or excessive leaving and entering the classroom), I reserve the right to not give you any participation points.

Please note that there are several films scheduled for the course. Due to library policies, these films are not available for viewing at any time other than those listed on the syllabus. Material from the films will be included in paper assignments and the final exam.

Pop Quizzes

During the course of the semester, about 15 pop quizzes will be given at the beginning of class. The question for the quiz will come from the reading that is due that day in class. If you miss that day of class (an unexcused absence) or come late, you will get a zero on the quiz for that day. If your absence is excused (see above) and there is a quiz that day, then the quiz will not be considered in your final grade. (10%)

Map quiz

Fill in a blank map of Africa with:

the names of all African countries (Sub-Saharan and North African): Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde (3), Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara (2), Zambia, and Zimbabwe;
Niger, Zambezi, Congo, and Nile Rivers;
Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika;
Great Rift Valley, Kalahari Desert, and Sahara Desert;
and the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Gulf of Guinea, Red Sea, and Mediterranean Sea.

1) Note that the former name of the Democratic Republic of Congo is Zaire.
2) Western Sahara is not an independent country, but claimed by Morocco.
3) There are five independent island nations offshore Africa: Sao Tome & Principe and Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean and the Comoros, Seychelles, and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

For a current map, see: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/africa_pol_2003.jpg or http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/africa_ref_2005.pdf
Some interactive learning programs for learning the names of the countries are at: http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/africa.html and http://www.yourchildlearns.com/africa_map.htm if you would like to test your knowledge prior to the quiz.
January 30th. (5%)

The Representation of Africa in African and Western Media: Presentation, Paper & Scrapbook

General Information

Pick one of the news sources published in Africa from the list here. You can find the actual newspaper websites off the website http://allafrica.com/publishers.html. Note that some of these news sources are in French or Portuguese, which you are free to pick if you can read this language.

The Presentation

You will present one article from the local press you picked in class. This presentation will constitute 5% of your total grade (or a quarter of this assignment's grade). In your presentation, you will have about three minutes to summarize the article briefly in class, answering the following questions:

What is this story about? Is it about local news---human interest or local politics? Does it represent a perspective on African issues (malaria vaccines, politics in another country) or international affairs (the war in Iraq, the new head of the UN)?
What did you learn about the experiences or perspectives of people in Africa through this story?
What surprised you, intrigued you, or puzzled you?
How does this story relate to any of the readings or discussions we have had in class?
And finally, pose a question to the class about something that you would like the class to consider or discuss.

The Paper

By the time the assignment is due, you should have collected at least 12 articles from this source (one per week of the semester). Then pick three articles on Africa, definitely on the same country and if possible, on the same issues, from the Western media from the same time period (January-April 2008). You can look through such articles in Lexis/Nexis Academic, a database of English-language newspapers, on the Rutgers library homepage, or on the websites of these media themselves, although you may be required to pay for the article if you go through the website rather than Rutgers library.

In your paper, you should provide the necessary background. First, you should describe your local news source. What kind of news media is it? Is it the official organ of the party in power (in control of the government)? Is it a news media set up by an opposition party? What is the bias of this news media in reporting on news? Any history that you can provide about the newspaper would be helpful.

Then, compare and contrast the ways that Africa is being presented through your African media source and through the Western press. For instance,

What are the differences in what is considered important in your African media source and the Western press?
What are the different assumptions that each has? What are the different assumptions that each has? Is the Western news media more depressing than the African news source?
What is the image presented about this country in the African media source? How is this different or the same from the image presented of this country (or Africa) in the Western press? You may want to return to your notes from the first and second days of class, when we discussed the common depiction of Africa in the Western media.

Your paper should be turned in with your data (the printouts of the articles you are analyzing). Your paper should be organized around an argument that is supported by the details you present, and your grade will be based on the depth and specificity of your analysis, drawing on the particular details and words within the articles themselves.

For directions on how to cite newspaper articles in the text and bibliography, go here.

If you would like to earn extra credit (up to 5 points), you may present your research on media sources at the Poster session for the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice and Psychology, on Thursday, May 1, during the free period, Campus Center. Please let me know if you are planning to do so.

Due April 16th. (20%)

Book review of an ethnography

Write a paper answering the following questions about your ethnography, drawing on specific details in both the class readings and the ethnography:

What is the argument of the ethnography?
What is the evidence it provides in support of this argument?
Is the evidence and argument convincing to you? Why or why not?
How do you see the effects of past history on Africa today (in terms of colonialism, the slave trade, the orientation of the economy towards export agriculture)?
Are the themes describing African social life visible in this particular society (see African History II powerpoint from February 4th)? How so or how is it different?
Does the notion of ethnicity (with a distinctive language, culture, and identity) make sense within the context of the book? What are some ways that ethnic identity has been constructed by people (during colonialism or not) or undermined by more complex or intricate social relations?
Compare your ethnography to the readings and films on foraging and herding societies in Africa (Mbuti, San, and Nuer). What are some of the differences and similarities in terms of economic, political, religious, and social life (kinship, gender)? What explains some of these differences and similarities?
What did you learn from this ethnography about the complexity of and variation between African societies?

Due March 26th. (20%)

Description of a visit to an African restaurant, grocery, or video store

Here you should go to an African establishment. Some suggestions for where you might find one locally are given here. I will be willing to take a group to the Baltimore Avenue neighborhood on Friday, April 25th. Please let me know if you are interested. We will meet on campus at 12:30pm. This trip is not a requirement, but an opportunity if you would like a little more guidance and support; you are welcome to go on your own.

At your visit to the establishment, you should buy something. If the place is a restaurant, sit down for a wonderful meal. At an African food market, buy yam or plantain and ask someone how best to cook it. Or buy an African video or music tape. What you buy does not have to be expensive, but the act of shopping and purchasing will give you an excuse to hang around the place a little longer and interact with someone. You can be clueless, and use your cluelessness to your advantage: What is this? Which one is best? Of course, be friendly without being annoying or disrupting the activities of the business.

As you visit the establishment, you should take a notebook in which to jot down short notes to yourself. Immediately on your return home or to a space where you can write, you should write a fuller description of the place and its surroundings, providing concrete details of interactions, people, and the space itself. Those details should be descriptive, not evaluative ("nice" or "well-dressed"). Your grade will be dependent on the details you provide in substantiating your answers to the questions below as well as the connections you make to the materials presented in class.

Provide a description of surrounding block, thinking specifically about the following questions: Residential or retail environment? Dilapidated or shops/houses that are in good condition? What is the ethnicity and class of those on the street? Is this a neighborhood of mainly immigrants, one in which African-Americans predominate, or some other kind of neighborhood? Go to the 2000 census of the census tract (http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html) where the establishment is located and note the census figures on region of birth for the foreign-born residents of that census tract (from DP-2 Profile of Selected Social Characteristics), ethnic makeup of the census tract (from QT-P3 Race and Hispanic or Latino), and occupation and income (DP-3 Profile of Selected Economic Characteristics), knowing that the information is eight years old. If you would like some more information about class, please refer to the Gilbert-Kahl Model of the Class Structure. Does the census support your own observations, or are there differences? How is this similar or different from the description of the neighborhood (the places Africans live and work) in Money Has No Smell?
Provide a description of the establishment itself, describing physical surroundings, customers, and employees (in terms of gender, ethnicity, and anything else that makes sense to comment on).
What signs do you see that lead you to believe that the establishment is set up for Africans or for Americans (whether African-Americans or other kinds of Americans)? Are the patrons mainly African or not? How much does the establishment serve as a place for Africans to connect to Africa (flyers for community meetings, posters for Western Union (money transfer agencies) or travel agencies, international phone cards)?
What is being sold in the establishment? Are they mainly African things, African and Caribbean, or a whole range of items, some of which are associated with Africa and some of which are not?
How is Africa portrayed within the establishment? What image of Africa is being portrayed here through pictures, music, or other items? How is the portrayal of Africa different from or similar to that portrayed by the traders in Money Has No Smell and "In and Out of Africa”?
Pick up any brochures or flyers that are available for the taking and include them as an appendix to your paper. You should refer to any attachments that you provide to your paper (photos, drawings, brochures) within the body of your paper.

Due May 5th. (20%)

Final Exam

Saturday, May 10th, 2pm (20%)