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Michigan State University Course Syllabus –

Edozie, Rita Kiki (PhD) Professor of International Relations and African Affairs Former Director, African American and African Studies

MC 390: 004 Spring 2016, Tuesdays - 5:00 PM-7:50 PM

339 North Case Hall

THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

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Course Summary and Teaching Method

Civil Rights author, Mary Frances Berry’s new book (We Are Who We Say We Are, Oxford University Press, 2015 http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Who-Say-Atlantic/dp/0199978336) writes on the complexity and malleability of racial meanings within the US over generations showing how Colored Creoles, similar to other immigrants and refugees were forged from and interacted with a rich global history passing back and forth as was representative of the diversity of the Atlantic World experience. The course dovetails Berry’s African Diasporic experiences as well as similar experiences of other African Americans, Afro-Caribbean’s, Afro-Latins, and continental Africans. We do so by answering the questions - What is the African Diaspora? Where is the African Diaspora? Who is from the African Diaspora? How does the African Diaspora move, develop, and change? How has the African Diaspora been made and remade? In this context, the course content presents for engagement and critical study four key elements of African Diaspora study as follows. First, there exists a common origin and consciousness of African origin. Secondly, African Diaspora study premises common experiences of racial terror including slavery, colonialism, and racism. Third, the study of the African Diaspora reveals continued black marginalization and inequality based on racial legacies and structures. Finally, through African Diaspora study, African descendant and African peoples acknowledge a common identification with an international Black community that requires continuous and sustained facilitation and engagement to effect its positive transformation. Participants of this course engage these core themes on a weekly basis in relation to several subtopics that are characteristic of the study of African Diasporas. These include contested definitions and concepts, heritage and racial identities, historic vs. new African diasporas, the globality and diversity of African Diasporas, as well as cultural Diasporic trans-nationalisms and political Pan-Africanisms. The course is guided by an ethnic and area cultural studies methodology that serves to comparatively engage and span African diaspora communities and lived experiences among local, national, and global sites of study in the US, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin-America, and Europe primarily. The course content delivery is offered as a student-centered, reading-and-discussion intensive, multi-media interactive, and critical-thinking facilitative weekly seminar. It is also a Tier 3 Writing course emphasizing acquisition of research and academic writing and oral communication skills for junior and senior level student participants.

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Required Assigned Books

• Joseph E Harris and Alusine Jalloh, The African Diaspora Texas A&M University Press, 1996

• Paul Tiyambe Zeleza In Search of African Diasporas Testimonies and

Encounters Carolina Academic Press (March 26, 2012)

• Gomez, Michal A Exchanging Our Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South University of North Carolina Press, 1998

• Wright, Michelle, Becoming Black: Creating Identity in the African

Diaspora Duke University Press, 2010

• Joseph E. Holloway Africanisms in American Culture, Second Edition (Blacks in the Diaspora) Indiana University Press; Second Edition (August 3, 2005)

• Candis Watts Smith Black Mosaic: The Politics of Black Pan-Ethnic Diversity

Copyright Date: 2014 Published by: NYU Press

• Yoku Shaw-Taylor and Steven A Tuch The Other African Americans: Contemporary African and Caribbean Families in the United States, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 1 edition (August 2, 2007)

• Larkin Nascimento, The Sorcery of Color: Identity, Race and Gender in

Brazil Temple University Press; 1 edition (October 28, 2006)

• Kevin Gaines, American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era The University of North Carolina Press; 1 edition (February 25, 2008)

• James G. Spady Marcus Garvey: Jazz, Reggae, Hip Hop and the African

Diaspora Paperback Marcus Garvey Foundation Publishers (December 31, 2011)

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Assignments

1. Weekly Talking Point Notes 15 points/1 point a week 2. Two Roundtable Group Presentations/Papers 40 points (20 points each) 3. Final Research Presentations and Papers 35 points (5 points presi) 4. Class Participation and Attendance 10 points

100 points

Grading Scale

1. at least 95 points - 4.0 2. at least 90 points - 3.5 3. at least 85 points – 3.0 4. at least 80 points – 2.5; 5. at least 75 points – 2.0 6. at least 70 points – 1.5 7. at least 65 points – 1.0

Code of Conduct ** Full attendance and seminar participation is required. You will be penalized for unexcused absences. ** Late assignments are not encouraged; however, lose 1 point a day for up to two days for late assignments (a day begins 10 minutes after the assignment due date deadline) **I’m sorry; I cannot accept emailed copies of assignments. ** Refer to the Student Handbook for Academic Honesty Policy ** Take advantage of my office hours- especially group presentations, and for final research paper development and revise and resubmits. Tuesday’s and Thursday’s 11:00 am – 4::00 pm by appointment only.

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CALENDER OF EVENTS

PART ONE DIASPORA DEFINITIONS AND SCOPE:

CLASSIC DISPERSALS, NEW ROUTES & ENCOUNTERS

WEEK ONE 1/12 Orientation & Overview:

The Study of the African Diaspora in Black/Africana Studies and International Public Affairs

Required Readings Read the Syllabus Colin Palmer, THE AFRICAN DIASPORA The Black Scholar Vol. 30, No. 3/4, Transcending Traditions (FALL-WINTER 2000), pp. 56-59 Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41068901 Page Count: 4 Assignment Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Episode 1 (Segment 2): The Establishment of Black Studies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noccmGJ9JsA Watch and listen carefully to the video. Answer the question – what is the African Diaspora and what is the concept’s relation to the discipline of Black/Africana Studies. How will we approach the study through the discipline of public affairs and international relations? Key concepts – persons of African descent, Black Studies, Africana Studies, the African Diaspora!

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WEEK TWO 1/19 Defining and Mapping African Diasporas - Dispersals

Required Readings Joseph E Harris and Alusine Jalloh, The African Diaspora Texas A&M University Press, 1996 CHAPTERS - Introduction By Alusine Jalloh and Dynamics of the Global African Diaspora By Joseph E. Harris Tiffany Ruby Patterson and Robin D. G. Kelley, Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World African Studies Review Vol. 43, No. 1, Special Issue on the Diaspora (Apr., 2000), pp. 11-45 Published by: Cambridge University Press DOI: 10.2307/524719 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/524719 Assignment: Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Review the promotional clip and website for SF’s Museum of the African Diaspora. In reviewing MOAD’s “art of the African Diaspora”, identify an artwork and discuss the Diasporic features/elements in terms of Diaspora movements, adaptation and transformation. Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QJ8uaeRmC0 MoAD website http://www.moadsf.org/explore/current-and-upcoming-exhibitions/

WEEK THREE: 1/26 Adaptations in Northern Hemispheric Hostlands:

Exclusion, Creolization, and Resistance in the Early Americas Required Readings Joseph E Harris and Alusine Jalloh, The African Diaspora Texas A&M University Press, 1996 Rethinking American Slavery By Colin A. Palmer

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"He Is an African But Speaks Plain": Historical Creolization in Eighteenth- Century Virginia By Douglas B. Chambers "This City Has Too Many Slaves Joined Together": The Abolitionist Crisis in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 1848-1856 By Dale T. Graden Kim D. Butler, Defining Diaspora, Refining a Discourse Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies Volume 10, Number 2, Fall 2001 pp. 189-219 | 10.1353/dsp.2011.0014 Assignment: Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion-Opener: Review the clip featuring Robin Kelly’s discussion of his book on the African influences of Jazz and the African American transformations of Jazz in Africa. Come to class prepared to discuss the ways that African Diaspority is manifest in Kelly’s discussion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW2gVNex2hs

WEEK FOUR 2/2: Exploring the Global African Diaspora I:

Latin America and the Caribbean

Required Readings Paul Tiyambe Zeleza In Search of African Diasporas Testimonies and Encounters Carolina Academic Press (March 26, 2012) Chapters:-

2006

Venezuela Brazil 2007 Haiti Cuba 2008 Mexico

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Paul Tiyambe Zeleza Rewriting the African Diaspora: Beyond the Black Atlantic African Affairs Vol. 104, No. 414 (Jan., 2005), pp. 35-68 : Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3518632 Assignment Select Chapters Assigned Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Review the video on Black In Latin America (Episode 1) Haiti and The Dominican Republic- The Roots of Division and discuss the distinctiveness (from the US) as well as the comparisons and variances of African Diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlG4b3LV9o

WEEK FIVE

2/9: Exploring the Global African Diaspora II: Europe and Asia

Required Readings: Paul Tiyambe Zeleza In Search of African Diasporas Testimonies and Encounters Carolina Academic Press (March 26, 2012) Chapters: -

2007 Germany

Britain France 2009 Spain Germany India Qatar Dubai Oman Patrick Manning, Review: Africa and the African Diaspora: New Directions of Study Reviewed Works: Rethinking the African Diaspora: The Making of a Black Atlantic World in the Bight of Benin and Brazil by

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Kristin Mann, Edna G. Bay; The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities by Isidore Okpewho, Carole Boyce Davies, Ali A. Mazrui Review by: The Journal of African History Vol. 44, No. 3 (2003), pp. 487-506 Assignment: Select Chapters Assigned

Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Review the video on Black In Latin America (Episode 1) Haiti and The Dominican Republic- The Roots of Division and discuss the distinctiveness (from the US) as well as the comparisons and variances of African Diasporas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_-OgAkbvoc Black France The immigration problem Episode # 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiA9QiAnA8I African tribe lost in India

PART TWO

DIASPORIC ORIGINS AND SLAVERY

WEEK SIX

2/16 Diasporic Origins and Slavery Roundtable 1a:

Required Readings: Gomez, Michal A Exchanging Our Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South University of North Carolina Press, 1998 James H. Sweet, Mistaken Identities? Olaudah Equiano, Domingos Álvares, and the Methodological Challenges of Studying the African Diaspora The American Historical Review Vol. 114, No. 2 (Apr., 2009), pp. 279-306 : Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30223779 Pg Count: 28

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Assignment Group Presentation 1a – Exchanging Our Marks Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Research and/or watch the movie on “The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, Slavery, and Anti-Slavery Resistance” called Amistad. Discuss the role that slavery forged the African Diaspora as well as North American, US, and World history! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej9C5rQOaYU Amistad - Official® Trailer [HD]

PART THREE:

DIASPORIC STRUCTURES: RACE, CULTURE, AND ETHNICITY

WEEK SEVEN

2/23 Race and the Identity of the African Diaspora Required Readings Wright, Michelle, Becoming Black: Creating Identity in the African Diaspora Duke University Press, 2010- Invention of the Black Other 27 Works of WEB Du Bois Leopold Sedar Senghor and Aime Cesaire 66 Frantz Fanons Legacy in Black Nationalist Thought and the Black Male Subject

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Making to Motherhood and the Diasporic Black Female Subject 136 Black Subjectivities in Berlin London and Paris 183 If the Black Is a Subject Can the Subaltern Speak?

229 Terrence W. Epperson, Critical Race Theory and the Archaeology of the African Diaspora Historical Archaeology Vol. 38, No. 1, Transcending Boundaries, Transforming the Discipline: African Diaspora Archaeologies in the New Millenium (2004), pp. 101-108 Society for Historical Archaeology http://www.jstor.org/stable/25617135 Page Count: 8

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WEEK EIGHT

3/1: Culture and the African Diaspora Roundtable Group 1b

Required Readings Joseph E. Holloway Africanisms in American Culture, Second Edition (Blacks in the Diaspora) Indiana University Press; Second Edition (August 3, 2005) Carole Boyce Davies and Carole Boyce-Davies, African Diaspora Culture Journal of Haitian Studies Vol. 10, No. 2, Bicentennial Issue (Fall 2004), pp. 181-182 Center for Black Studies Research URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41715274 Assignment Group Presentation 1b – Africanisms in American Culture Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener: Identify the African-inspired and hybrid cultural roots of Latin American dance, music, and cinema. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o42YSSo2ri8 African Influence on Latin American Culture

WEEK NINE 3/7 SPRING BREAK

Assignment Select Chapters Assigned Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Watch the video presentation by Paul Gilroy How did Birth of the Nation socially construct the African Diaspora identity as racially inferior? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79sJjKG-VMo Paul Gilroy on The Birth of a Nation

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WEEK TEN 3/15: African Diaspora Identities and Ethnicity

Required Readings Candis Watts Smith Black Mosaic: The Politics of Black Pan-Ethnic Diversity Copyright Date: 2014 Published by: NYU Press – Chapters: - 1 Black on Black History 19 2 Diasporic Consciousness: Theorizing Black Pan-Ethnic Identity and Intraracial Politics 45 3 From Group Membership to Group Identification 69 4 Broadening Black Identity: Evidence in National Data 110 5 Politicizing Identities: Linking Identity to Politics 133 6 Perspectives on Intraracial Coalition and Conflict 175 Conclusion: My President Is Black? Assignment Select Chapters Assigned Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Have fun with this clip; it’s Trevor Noah – Let’s talk about ethnicity, identity and the African Diaspora in comparative (South Africa – US) and Diasporic perspective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgZYCj39M38 Funny South African Comedian Trevor Noah On Black Americans

PART FOUR: NEW AFRICAN DIASPORAS AND NEW

ENCOUNTERS

WEEK ELEVEN 3/22: Non-American Blacks or Black Immigration in the US

Roundtable 2a Required Readings Yoku Shaw-Taylor and Steven A Tuch The Other African Americans: Contemporary African and Caribbean Families in the United States, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 1 edition (August 2, 2007)

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Rebecca Davies, Reconceptualising the Migration: Development Nexus: Diasporas, Globalisation and the Politics of Exclusion Third World Quarterly Vol. 28, No. 1 (2007), pp. 59-76 Taylor & Francis, Ltd. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4017793 Page Count: 18 Assignment Group Presentation 2a – The Other African Americans Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Let’s talk about “The African Immigrant in China” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GURLHAM-KoI African Immigrants Talk About Life in Beijing

WEEK TWELVE 3/29: The Largest African Diaspora Outside of Africa: Afro-Brazil

Roundtable 2b

Required Readings Larkin Nascimento, The Sorcery of Color: Identity, Race and Gender in Brazil Temple University Press; 1 edition (October 28, 2006) Niyi Afolabi, Quilombismo and the Afro-Brazilian Quest for Citizenship Journal of Black Studies Vol. 43, No. 8 (NOVEMBER 2012), pp. 847-871 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23414678 Page Count: 25 Assignment Group Presentation Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Let’s discuss Brazil’s so called, “racial democracy” – in African Diasporic perspective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh7c46U5hhY Black in Latin America E02, Brazil: A Racial Paradise

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PART FIVE: COMMON DIASPORIC FORMATIONS,

STRUGGLES, AND SOLIDARITIES

WEEK THIRTEEN 4/5: Afro-modernity and Parallel Political Pan African Struggles

Required Readings Kevin Gaines, American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era The University of North Carolina Press; 1 edition (February 25, 2008) Michael Hanchard, Afro-Modernity: Temporality, Politics, and the African Diaspora Public Culture (1999) 11(1): 245-268; doi:10.1215/08992363-11-1-245 Hakim Adi ,The African Diaspora, 'Development' & Modern African Political Theory Review of African Political Economy Vol. 29, No. 92, Africa, the African Diaspora and Development (Jun., 2002), pp. 237-251 Assignment Select Chapters Assigned Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Review the debate between Stokely (Carmichael) and Molefe Asante on Pan Africanism and Afro-centricity! What does the debate tell us about the future of the African Diaspora https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3zoIaSp0Kk Kwame Ture vs. Molefi Asante - Africa and the Future Debate (Pan-Africanism vs Afrocentrism)

WEEK FOURTEEN

4/12 Cultural Pan Africanism Roundtable 2c

Required Readings James G. Spady Marcus Garvey: Jazz, Reggae, Hip Hop and the African Diaspora Paperback Marcus Garvey Foundation Publishers (December 31, 2011)

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Assignment Prepare, Present, and Submit Talking Point Notes to Discuss Readings Prepare for Discussion Opener Listen to Bob Marley’s classic African Diaspora liberation song and the second video on the Jamaican’s Rastafari Ehiopianism African Diasporma movment and show how diaspora formation, exchanges and political solidarity are made through culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta_MvFSQ_Mc Bob Marley and the Walers-Redemption Song (Lyrics) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ6uGRmPQSQ Faces Of Africa: Rastafarians coming Home to Africa

PART SIX:

CONTRIBUTING TO AFRICAN DIASPORA FORMATION – “YOU” FINALE AND CREATIVE PROJECTS

WEEK FIFTEEN

4/19: FINAL PAPER WORKSHOP Required Readings Read for your research (Your Literature Review) Assignment Conduct your own online research

WEEK SIXTEEN 4/26: FINAL RESEARCH PAPER PRESENTATIONS

Required Readings Read for your research (Your Literature Review) Assignment Conduct your own online research

WEEK SEVENTEEN 5/3 (Tuesday) Final Papers Due