Readings for Week 2 Tutorials

For our first tutorial read R. Reid, History of Modern Africa (2009), pp149-164 and one chapter or article from the case studies on the reading list. There are three electronic journal articles on this list available via Jstor:

R. Waller, ‘The Maasai and the British’, Journal of African History, 17 (1976).

A. & B. Isaacman, ‘Resistance and Collaboration’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 10 (1977).

Paul E. Lovejoy and J. S. Hogendorn, ‘Revolutionary Mahdism and Resistance to Colonial Rule in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1905-6’, Journal of African History, 31 (1990).

The PDF of Reid's textbook will be available here for this week only, thereafter on BLE.

Getting started with revision

If you are stuck with revision or feeling overwhelmed by all the information you need to process, here is my suggestion on how to get going.

1. Look at your lecture and tutorial notes for the topic you are revising, and briefly identify its key themes, related historiography, and if relevant, theories.

2. Turn these key ideas into headings for whichever method of revising works for you. For example, you could use them as legs on a spider diagram, or devote a sheet of paper to each one. The important thing is to make sure you keep all the information reasonably categorised and easy to memorise, and organising your notes around very specific headings really helps with this.

3. Your revision material should be made up of your lecture and tutorial notes, essays, the main tutorial readings listed in the course outline, relevant notes from books you've read this year, and relevant chapters from useful overview books like Illife's Africans and John Parker's Very Short Introduction to provide context. Don't attempt to read whole new books from scratch at this stage. For additional material, particularly for the three topics on which you have not done essays, read digestible chunks such as journal articles, chapters in edited volumes, etc, which appear on the reading list for that topic.

4. Some people take more notes initially than others, but you need to keep reducing your notes down (however many stages this takes!) until you can fit everything you need onto about a side of A4 of trigger words and phrases. The process of doing this will help you memorise everything.

5. The final stage should be to practise making exam essay plans for each version of the question that you can find in the past papers. It is a really good idea to get used to doing this within the time limit you will have in the exam, which is about 10 minutes. These plans should be a maximum of half a side of A4. You can also practise writing out entire answers to past questions under timed conditions (45 mins). This seems laborious but is extremely helpful.

Revision checklist

For each of your six revision topics, do you have:

- A breakdown of its key themes? (E.g., some of the key themes for Christianity are: its nature as a 'world' religion, literacy, the 'civilising mission', African Independent Churches, etc.) Use these key themes to direct your revision, e.g., as headings on a spider diagram or note cards.

- A good idea of the change over time present in your topic? Can you contrast, if relevant, pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods for its key themes? Can you chart the change within these periods?

- A carefully-chosen selection (usually around three will be sufficient) of case-studies? Pick ones that can be well-contrasted, e.g., if you are looking at colonial rule, don't pick three examples of British indirect rule, but rather e.g. a British, a French, and a white-settler colony.

- Knowledge of the historiographic debate surrounding the topic? Can you can plot a a basic outline of how the study of the topic has developed, who its important authors are, and what they have argued?

- If necessary, an understanding of the theory of your topic? This does not apply to all topics, but there are some ideas (e.g. gender, identity, spirit possession, etc) for which knowledge of the ways in which they may be interpreted is important.

Historicizing 20th century culture

Studying culture as a historian is difficult because the secondary literature you read is more often cultural criticism than history proper. Here are some questions to keep in mind when you are trying to historicize (what a horrible word) culture for essays etc. Replace the word music with your artform of choice.

• How did the form of music change?
• What themes did music begin to address?
• How did the audience for music change?
• How did technological change impact upon the production and consumption of music?
• To what extent did economics and markets affect music and musical culture?

Theatre for Development

One of the most dramatic changes, or evolutions of African theatre was the development of ‘Theatre for Development’ or TfD. TfD developed in Nigeria in roughly 1970. It was about teaching change through the art of drama, using it as an ‘instrument of social mobilisation’. It aimed to move away from traditional western theatre and other new theatrical creations, preferring to focus on audience participation. It created awareness of vital problems and issues that were affecting the lower classes and with their attention caught the drama would then try to inspire them in ways that they could improve their lives. This type of theatre remains culturally relevant, as well as socially, as it embraces art forms of the past. It uses the indigenous methods of song, dance, music and costume etc. as well as using different animal characters from native lore. These plays were/are an effective way of getting across a message that would otherwise be lost in writing to an illiterate audience.

Video: Theatre for Development AFRICA MALAWI feat. CRECCOM chancy mauluka TFD Trainings.mpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uPCA7LVTw

Transcript

(because the video is of terrible quality)

(there are blanks where i couldn't understand)

(and yes i painstakingly did it by hand and should get a first just for that effort alone)

This is one of the tunes that I used for the empowerment of communities to reflect on their situation and take up an active role towards addressing problems that effect their lives... Utilises indigenous forms of art, grammar, songs, dances, stories and symbols and any other form that the research team finds in that community.

TFD undergoes 5 major steps: 1)Participatory research 2) Analysis of research findings 3)play creation 4)Rehearsal 5)Performance (Recording)

Every step is participatory in that community members are involved in that process. When it comes to breaking through issues that are sensitive and hidden, TFD becomes an ideal effective tool for information gathering, verification and empowerment.

The depth of the information collected is derived from the nature of the information gathering process where TFD residuals are deployed to stay at their sides where TFD activities shall be conducted. They stay in the same village houses as those of the locals and are involved in the routine household chores of the people and participate in the ceremonial activities in the area. Be it traditional dances, funerals and any other gathering that celebrate life and society.

In the process they gather information through observation, listening and informal interviews without necessarily carrying a paper and pen for recording info. This process builds trust by community members in the residuals, they are able to share with them hidden and personal issues about their lives.

--- Woman talks of her child's rape

The collected information is later recorded in the night by the residuals, analysed and later processed into ____ plays which are performed on an agreed date with the community members. Therefore the plats contain episodes that reflect real life situations as were collected. These situations are very ___, questions posed to the community members who at this moment are both the audience and the performers. By responding to the questions about the play the people find they are discussing their own situations in life.

Through talking to different target groups facts are not only verified but also found making TFD play a complimentary research too on its own. Through the involvement of different stake holders the TFD play becomes a forum for effective, efficient and realistic action planning. The wide spectrum of different target groups that TFD attracts provides opportune time for effective _____

TFD makes project goals and objectives clear to all. TFD plays motivate the community towards achieving those goals by depicting the expected indicators of success that may be achieved by implementing the suggestive plans of action.

British Museum

'Throwing knives from the 19th century'

Mostly made with iron, copper and vegetable fibre.

Some of are designed to be a weapon but others are not.

Not much is known about these knives and it still remains obscure but they were to suggest a great wealth of significance.

These throwing knives are personal possessions and are referred to by their owners.

When understanding the variety of forms, it may help to perceive each one as in some respects of human image.

'Backrest from Democratic Republic of Congo in the 19th century'

Made with wood overlaid and copper wire.

It was placed behind men's benches but those with metal overlay were restricted to chiefs.

'Hat from Democratic Republic of Congo, late 19th century'

'Painting by Charinda, 2002'

Charinda was born in south Tanzania who studied Tingatinga painting in Oyster Bay, Dar es Salaam.

His paintings has a educational message by drawing the village with stories.

This painting shows women wearing kangas

(which is a colorful cotton fabric usually worn by women)

in Tanzanian villages that expresses the kanga influence in Swahili society.

'Carved post from a Iatmul men's cult house about 1970-1995'

Iatmul people who live in Papua New Guinea is a society where male power is massive by having the emphasize on male warfare and head-hunting.

The village is shaped with the men's ceremonial houses which represents the aggressive assertion of power.

This housepost is one of the carvings that reflects those power of men.

'Drums are Calling'

Here is a translation of a Ugandan song called 'Drums are Calling'

DRUMS ARE CALLING.
Drums are calling, at ours they are calling for good news; Drums are calli.................ng X 2
1 Girls come we dig
chorus drums are calling.
thats how we girls dig.
chrs
2- Boys come and we hunt. drums are calling
Thats how boys hunt
chrs
2- girls come and we play
drums are calling
thats how we girls play
chrs
4- Boys come and we play
the drums are calling
thats how we boys always play
chrs
5-Bend down ye friends
Bend down ye survied friends .......
Who ever will lack feet , I will give him my husbands shoes and my brother in-lows back
for him to dance.
This is the time when the mother breast feeds the baby and the burren bends and starts crying.



{short instrumental}
you can stop because you have come tired X 2
Here is the goat let it be slaughtered for you.
Here is the millet flour to make your drink
ohoooooooo......................stop