African History Commons^™

No Such Thing As A Slave Narrative: Abba, Coobah, And Sally, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

Within history, there is a push to combine and generalize individual experiences into a single narrative. However, individual slaves lived massively different lives even when they lived on the same planation. My presentation will focus on three specific slaves from Thomas Thistlewood’s sugar cane plantation in Jamaica. These three women lived in the same place, experienced the same brutality, and yet all responded differently to their trauma. I will agree that historians cannot create a comprehensive slave narrative because of these varying and greatly contrasting lives.

Amjambo Africa! (April 2018), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

Welcome to Amjambo Africa! Welcome to Amjambo Africa! We are Maine’s free newspaper for and about New Mainers from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Amjambo Africa! is here to help New Mainers thrive and to help Maine welcome and benefit from our new neighbors.

Amjambo Africa! will serve as a conduit of information for newcomers as they navigate life in Maine.

Amjambo Africa! will include background articles about Africa so those from Maine can understand why newcomers have arrived here.

Amjambo Africa! will profile successful New Mainers from Sub-Saharan Africa in order to give hope to those newly arrived as well as make …

Managing Ethnic Conflict In Darfur: An Analysis Of Third-Party Interventions, Marley R. Dizney Swanson

Student Publications

Persistent ethnic conflict in Darfur has been met by third-party interventions with varying degrees of success. This paper seeks to isolate different methods of intervention in order to understand what types are effective in reducing the number of people affected by violence caused by ethnic conflict. Each intervention is separated into three categories based on their nature: humanitarian, militaristic, and diplomatic. These actions are then juxtaposed with data from medical journals that describe the effects of violence, including death by violence, death by disease, and child mortality rates. The success of an intervention is measured by its ability to reduce …

Understanding Violence Against Foreigners In Cape Town: Conceptions Of Autochthony And Xenophobia In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Mary L. Casey

Student Publications

Examining the correlation between the history of colonialism and structures of Apartheid in South Africa and the current xenophobic violence experienced by Black African immigrants settling in Cape Town. This thesis explores theories of autochthony and belonging in the context of Cape Town, Black South African relationships and ownership of land, access to resources and opportunities for employment, and the continued disenfranchisement of Black South Africans in the wake of Apartheid. These components of the issue of xenophobia in Cape Town are factored into an analysis of how and why violence persists against immigrants in the city.

What Lies In The Gray: Creative Analytic Pieces On The Formation And Evolution Of Beliefs In Masxha, Robin Mwai

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this project was to look at how members of Durban's Masxha township develop their belief systems and ideas about their world. This topic was developed out of a desire to better understand the factors that promote or inhibit individuals from changing their mind about topics relating to their community, society, and culture. I sought to gain a deeper understanding of the specific context of Masxha and the experiences and lives of those with whom I spoke.

To accomplish the goal of learning from lived experiences, this study employed a narrative inquiry approach. Using loosely-structured interviews involving eight …

The Witty And Hilarious Stories Of Shum Fre-Hans - ተረካብ ዘረባ ሽም ፍረሓንስ, Abraham Negash

Symposium on Eritrean Literature

Before the beginning of written literature, the stories told by people known for their wisdom and intellect in their villages were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.

However, as time went by and the tellers of Eritrean folklore passed away and the rest of society became nonchalant, the meaning and pleasurable messages started to fade away from the memory of society. If those stories had been written down, they would have enriched and contributed immensely to the development of Eritrean language, culture, and literature.

Considering that a lot has been said and narrated in different regions on …

Religion, Media, And Marginality In Modern Africa, Felicitas Becker, Joel Cabrita, Marie Rodet

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In recent years, anthropologists, historians, and others have been drawn to study the profuse and creative usages of digital media by religious movements. At the same time, scholars of Christian Africa have long been concerned with the history of textual culture, the politics of Bible translation, and the status of the vernacular in Christianity. Students of Islam in Africa have similarly examined politics of knowledge, the transmission of learning in written form, and the influence of new media. Until now, however, these arenas—Christianity and Islam, digital media and “old” media—have been studied separately.

Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa …

A Colony’S State Of Sovereignty: Decolonization Has Yet To Take Place In Rwanda, Mahalia Mehu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Martin Shipway, renowned author of Decolonization and Its Impact and professor of twentieth-century French Studies stated that:

"[...]it took only about twenty years for most of the formal structures and institutions of colonialism [...]to be swept away.[The] often violent and intermittently intense period of crisis[...] [explains] an international phenomenon as complex as decolonization[...] ."

Yet this quote by Shipway does not speak to the fact that independence from former colonial powers has not been fully achieved and neither has decolonization. According to the documentation of the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, the former German/Belgian colony of Rwanda did not achieve the …

The Legacy Of African Veterans Of World War Ii And Their Role In The Independence Movements Of The Mid–Century, Matthew Patsis

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Throughout the First and Second World Wars, armies of African soldiers fought in defense of European interests, while being relegated to colonial status and making very little progress toward gaining independence of their own. The focus of this article is Léopold Senghor, the first president of independent Senegal, and the profound impact he had as a war veteran and member of the Tirailleurs Sénégalais (Senegalese Skirmishers) on independence movements in French West Africa. This essay will then examine the origins of post–war independence movements, the role that veterans like Senghor played in these movements, and the means by which they …

Introduction To The Arts Of Africa, Joshua Cohen

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Finding Aid And Container List, Thomas G. Carpenter Library Special Collections And University Archives, Tammy Druash

Finding Aids and Container Lists

Desmond Tutu is a civil rights activist and theologian from South Africa. He was active in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement and won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize as a result of his efforts. He is the former Bishop of Johannesburg and Archbishop of Cape Town, and is currently the Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town. In the spring of 2003 Archbishop Tutu was a visiting professor at UNF and taught 2 classes titled “The Struggle against Apartheid” and “Truth and Reconciliation”. Archbishop Tutu is now retired and resides in Cape Town.

French Colonialism In Algeria: War, Legacy, And Memory, Haley Brown

Honors Theses

Over the course of my research for my honors thesis project, I sought to better understand the history of French colonialism in Algeria in addition to how it is remembered today. I theorized that the legacy of this history impacts issues of immigration exclusion, islamophobia, racism, and social discrimination faced by Algerians in modern day France. These issues have become important topics of discussion and investigation in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks carried out by descendants of North African immigrants in the heart of hexagonal France. Through the study of primary and secondary sources, as well as a …

Evaluating Appropriate Repertoire For Developing Singers: An African-American Art Song Anthology, Nicole Michelle Sonbert

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Finding appropriate and unique repertoire for the developing singer is a daunting task and ongoing challenge in the teaching profession. There are limited resources to help guide teachers in selecting varied, yet suitable repertoire that falls outside of the standard Western European musical canon. The early years, ages 17–21, are crucial to establishing a healthy and well-rounded vocal approach to singing, while also introducing the student to a wide variety of music. African-American art song is a great option for developing singers. Repertoire should allow a student to grow musically, vocally, and artistically according to the singer’s specific stage of …

The Dark Past Of Rhode Island In New Light, Yulyana Torres, Marcus Nevius

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

The Principles And Rhetoric Of Autarky: Debate And Decision-Making In Early Colonial Kenya, Ian Michael Ferguson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study seeks to understand the decision-making process of the colonial government of the East Africa Protectorate by articulating the principles of autarky: financial independence, development, and effective occupation. The principles of autarky, which are both goal and process for the colonial government, strove to bring that government to a state of self-sufficiency, or autarky. These principles created their own rhetoric within official correspondence which dominated the decision-making process. By looking at three different periods, Foreign Office control, the transition to Colonial Office responsibility, and the Soldier Settlement Scheme of 1919, the importance of the principles and rhetoric of autarky …

Foreign Intervention In Africa After The Cold War: Sovereignty, Responsibility, And The War On Terror, Elizabeth Schmidt

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War—interdisciplinary in approach and intended for nonspecialists—Elizabeth Schmidt provides a new framework for thinking about foreign political and military intervention in Africa, its purposes, and its consequences. She focuses on the quarter century following the Cold War (1991–2017), when neighboring states and subregional, regional, and global organizations and networks joined extracontinental powers in support of diverse forces in the war-making and peace-building processes. During this period, two rationales were used to justify intervention: a response to instability, with the corollary of responsibility to protect, and the war on terror.

Often overlooked …

Marching Morally Towards Equality: Perspective Of Bishop Richard Allen, Ernest M. Oleksy

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

The African American's struggle for equality is fraught with contributions from men and women of various ilk. Amongst these early abolitionists were naturalist Benjamin Banneker, freeman orator Frederick Douglass, and Bishop Richard Allen, who is the focus of this paper. Through an analysis of primary and secondary sources, the author takes on the persona of the late Bishop speaking to a community of his fellow African Americans as he comments on timely events and characters and advises the listeners on a reasonable course of action.

Apartheid’S Last Hope: The International Fight For Walvis Bay, 1966-1994 History, Lila Quinn

Honors Program Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Dedan Kimathi On Trial : Colonial Justice And Popular Memory In Kenya’S Mau Mau Rebellion, Julie Macarthur

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

The transcript from this historic trial, long thought destroyed or hidden, unearths a piece of the British colonial archive at a critical point in the Mau Mau Rebellion. Its discovery and landmark publication unsettles an already contentious Kenyan history and its reverberations in the postcolonial present.

Perhaps no figure embodied the ambiguities, colonial fears, and collective imaginations of Kenya’s decolonization era more than Dedan Kimathi, the self-proclaimed field marshal of the rebel forces that took to the forests to fight colonial rule in the 1950s. Kimathi personified many of the contradictions that the Mau Mau Rebellion represented: rebel statesman, literate …

Naming Rape: The Social Practice Of Power, Agency, And Victimization In The Italo-Ethiopian War, 1936-1940, Caroline Waldron Merithew

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper, “Naming Rape,” shows how and when rape got named as part of the movement against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936. I show that activists used the term strategically at certain points and specific places of the struggle to sway opinion and move the international community to challenge fascist violence and expansionism. Naming rape was something new for antiwar activists at this time.