HIS2027 : Africa: History of a Continent
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Dr Christina Mobley
- Lecturer: Dr Willow Berridge
- Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
This module covers the history of Africa from roughly the dawn of history until the post-colonial period. The module is organized chronologically by region, in order to introduce students to the great diversity of peoples, cultures, and climates that characterize the African continent. In this module, students will learn that Africa was never the “dark continent” that it is often supposed to be. A major focus of the module will be Africa’s engagement with the outside world, including the trans-Saharan trade, Swahili city-states and the Indian Ocean, and Trans-Atlantic trade. The module will stress continuity across time periods in order to highlight the lasting impact of historical processes, especially the slave trade and European colonialism. By privileging interdisciplinary methodologies to recover African voices, ideas, and institutions, students learn how Africans have always been influential historical actors in world history, exploring how they interacted with their neighbors in ways that made sense to them and their communities.
Module Aims:
• Introduce students to the African past, especially the way in which Africans influenced, and were influenced by global networks of exchange of people, goods, and ideas.
• Introduce students to multidisciplinary methods and sources used to recover the African past.
• Explore the challenges of “doing history” by evaluating historical interpretations.
• Introduce students to crafting their own arguments about the African past.
Outline Of Syllabus
Topics for this course may include:
The Invention of Africa
Human Origins
Invention of Language
Foodways: Farming, Hunter Gatherers, Pastoralists
Diffusion of Iron
Climate
The Bantu Expansion
Nile River Valley Societies – Egypt, Nubia
The Horn of Africa
North Africa in Global History
Christianity, Islam, and African Traditional Religions
Niger River Valley and the Medieval Empires
Trans-Saharan Trade in Global History
East Africa, Swahili City States, and Indian Ocean Trade
Encounter with Europeans
Dependency, Slavery, and Slave Trades
Southern Africa in Global History
Impact of the Slave Trade on Africa
European Colonialism
Post-Colonial Africa
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 50 | 1:00 | 50:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 22 | 1:00 | 22:00 | In class lectures |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 73 | 1:00 | 73:00 | Reading self-selected from the module reading list |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 44 | 1:00 | 44:00 | 4 hrs per week of required reading to support classroom activities and seminars |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Seminars |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Our teaching strategy is based on a flipped classroom. Students are expected to come to class having completed the assigned reading in order to fully participate in active learning, lead by in-classroom activities. Lectures will introduce topics and provide expert orientation and exposition on a broad range of themes and issues, supplemented by the module reading list. In-person lectures will provide opportunities for dialogue.
Seminars are spaces for students to workshop specific case studies, developing the competencies in the multidisciplinary methodologies and analytical skills targeted in the module aims.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio | 2 | M | 50 | 1500 words |
| Essay | 2 | A | 50 | 1750 words |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
HIS2027 seeks to introduce students to the study of the vast history of Africa, the continent with the longest human history. Because the module covers such a vast amount of material, the first assessment is a Portfolio, which will assess students' familiarity with a broad range of the themes and knowledge areas covered on the module. It will also test their ability to reflect on the methodological challenges posed by various types of primary sources relevant to this subject area.
The essay examines students’ ability to engage critically with historiographical and methodological debates, as well as to write and research independently from a set of thematic essay options. The essay draws on the foundational knowledge established by the Portfolio entries, and students will have the opportunity to workshop their final essays in discussion section during the semester.
Work submitted during the delivery of the module forms a means of determining student progress. Submitted work tests knowledge outcomes and develops skills in research, reading and writing.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- HIS2027's Timetable