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Theses/Dissertations

2021

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Full-Text Articles in African History

“A Change Is Gonna Come”: Music And Its Role In The Civil Rights Movement, Nathanial Humphrey Dec 2021

“A Change Is Gonna Come”: Music And Its Role In The Civil Rights Movement, Nathanial Humphrey

Honors College Theses

This thesis paper will provide thorough research and analysis regarding the role of music during the Civil Rights Movement. It would be the goal of this paper to answer the questions of whether or not music had an impact on the Civil Rights Movement, and if so, then in what ways and how was this conveyed through the music.This paper aims to discuss different genres of music, including but not limited to; jazz, rock, pop, blues, etc. In order to answer these questions, this paper will be analyzing songs written by artists during the movement, looking for forms of rhetoric …


Black Organizations As A Way To Increase Black Students’ College Attendance Rates By Improving Their Academic Performance At Primary And Secondary Schools, Leydi Mercedes Vidal Perlaza Oct 2021

Black Organizations As A Way To Increase Black Students’ College Attendance Rates By Improving Their Academic Performance At Primary And Secondary Schools, Leydi Mercedes Vidal Perlaza

Doctoral Dissertations

The racial academic achievement gap between Black students and other students is one of the most pressing education-policy challenges faced by the United States. This gap refers to the disparities in standardized test scores between these groups of students. Decades ago, Fordham and Ogbu’s theory about the “burden of acting White” was one of the most cited studies indicating the causes of this achievement gap. This theory indicates that Black students who do not perform well academically, do not want to achieve success at school because it is considered as acting White. However, this is an old way of thinking …


The Fight For Freedom Of Two Oppressed Groups: Indian Nationalism And African American Liberation, Denzel D. Goodman Aug 2021

The Fight For Freedom Of Two Oppressed Groups: Indian Nationalism And African American Liberation, Denzel D. Goodman

Theses (2016-Present)

This study examines the activities of two revolutionaries, one Lala Har Dayal (1884-1939) who established in the U.S. the Ghadar Party as an Indian revolutionary party against the British rule in India and the other was Huey P. Newton (1942-1989) who was a founder of the Black Panther Party which violently agitated against the longstanding chokehold of the “White” rule over the African American people. Juxtaposing the two different time periods and two different continents, which are incompatible phenomena give further understanding of what caused both such movements, regarded as aggressive resistance by their peoples to their oppressive rulers, to …


German Odysseys Of The First World War, David Terence Hillman Jul 2021

German Odysseys Of The First World War, David Terence Hillman

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the journeys of four separate German military units away from the European theater and forced to operate without aid or allies in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans, as well as in Africa. Each group had a clear goal to accomplish, to strengthen the German war effort from abroad, either by disrupting, evading, or diverting Allied personnel and war materiel. To accomplish this, each group required cunning, discipline, deception, and strong leadership. These odysseys, although more aptly compared to Xenophon’s Anabasis, demonstrate the global nature of the First World War, the deterioration of international good will …


The Ill-Treatment Of Their Countrywoman: Liberated African Women, Violence, And Power In Tortola, 1807–1834, Arianna Browne Jun 2021

The Ill-Treatment Of Their Countrywoman: Liberated African Women, Violence, And Power In Tortola, 1807–1834, Arianna Browne

Master's Theses

In 1807, Parliament passed an Act to abolish the slave trade, leading to the Royal Navy’s campaign of policing international waters and seizing ships suspected of illegal trading. As the Royal Navy captured slave ships as prizes of war and condemned enslaved Africans to Vice-Admiralty courts, formerly enslaved Africans became “captured negroes” or “liberated Africans,” making the subjects in the British colonies. This work, which takes a microhistorical approach to investigate the everyday experiences of liberated Africans in Tortola during the early nineteenth century, focuses on the violent conditions of liberated African women, demonstrating that abolition consisted of violent contradictions …


Challenges Of Repatriation: Asante Artifacts At The American Museum Of Natural History, Abdul-Alim Farook Jun 2021

Challenges Of Repatriation: Asante Artifacts At The American Museum Of Natural History, Abdul-Alim Farook

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inspired by calls for the repatriation of famous artifacts like the Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles, for this capstone project, I have analyzed and catalogued 250 sampled Asante artifacts at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Through this analysis, I discuss the many ways museums in North America acquired their collections. By doing so, I explore the difficulties that arise in debates surrounding repatriation due to the manner in which these artifacts were acquired. I argue that due to the many different types of donors of the Asante artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History, the Asante …


Archaeology And Settlement Histories Along The Pra River, Southern Ghana, Circa 500 B.C. – Ad 1970, Samuel Amartey May 2021

Archaeology And Settlement Histories Along The Pra River, Southern Ghana, Circa 500 B.C. – Ad 1970, Samuel Amartey

Dissertations - ALL

Archaeological and historical data are used to examine transformations in settlement organizationand settlement patterns along the Pra River, southern Ghana, from the first millennium BC to the mid-twentieth century. The study's focus is on Supomu Island and Wawase, two abandoned settlement sites located in the lower reaches of the Pra River, 15 kilometers north of the coastal trading and port town of Shama. Mapping of surface features, surface collections, shovel test pits, and test excavations are used to document intra- and inter-site artifact distributions. These lines of evidence are used in conjunction with historical sources to explore the processes of …


Archaeology And Settlement Histories Along The Pra River, Southern Ghana, Circa 500 B.C. – Ad 1970, Samuel Amartey May 2021

Archaeology And Settlement Histories Along The Pra River, Southern Ghana, Circa 500 B.C. – Ad 1970, Samuel Amartey

Dissertations - ALL

Archaeological and historical data are used to examine transformations in settlement organizationand settlement patterns along the Pra River, southern Ghana, from the first millennium BC to the mid-twentieth century. The study’s focus is on Supomu Island and Wawase, two abandoned settlement sites located in the lower reaches of the Pra River, 15 kilometers north of the coastal trading and port town of Shama. Mapping of surface features, surface collections, shovel test pits, and test excavations are used to document intra- and inter-site artifact distributions. These lines of evidence are used in conjunction with historical sources to explore the processes of …


The Role Of Nations-State In Protecting And Supporting Internally Displaced Persons, Daisy Byers May 2021

The Role Of Nations-State In Protecting And Supporting Internally Displaced Persons, Daisy Byers

Master's Theses

The rising increase of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has become a global problem. There are over 40 million internally displaced people globally, and 15.9 million are displaced in Africa. These displacements come into place due to war/conflict, corruption, massive human rights violations, natural disasters, urban renewal projects (at the hands of powerful nations such as America, China, France, UK, etc.), and large-scale development projects. According to UNHCR, refugees are people who have international cross-border. In contrast, internally displaced persons must stay within their own country and stay under the protection of their government, even if the government is the reason …


Shifting Sands., Rachid Tagoulla May 2021

Shifting Sands., Rachid Tagoulla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Shifting Sands is a re-exploration of the presentation of North Africans in colonial postcards, an examination of identity, and a critique of the modern Western museum. Since the inception of photography, colonizers used this medium- especially in the form of postcards- to categorize and exoticize Eastern peoples in order to more easily subjugate them. Shifting Sands is a series of reconstructed colonial postcards which challenges colonial-era stereotypes of North African peoples. The colonial gaze, represented by the camera lens, is subverted through a lensless image-making process in which sand is used to remove the subject from the colonial gaze and …


The United States And Portuguese Angola: Space, Race, And The Cold War In Africa, Alex J. Marino May 2021

The United States And Portuguese Angola: Space, Race, And The Cold War In Africa, Alex J. Marino

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an international history of the role of the United States in the process of decolonization in Angola, a former colony of Portugal. I argue that the United States embraced Portugal, Angola, and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo as irreplaceable Cold War allies. Decolonization in Africa challenged America’s relationship with all three countries, as competing forces within the American public called for Washington to adopt an anti-colonial, anti- racist ideology, while others demanded their government to support white supremacy at home and abroad. Decolonization in Angola, a protracted liberation struggle that started in 1961 and lasted until 1974, …


Les Esprits Vodou, L’Oncle Sam, Et Le Crucifix : Les Relations Endommagées Entre Le Monde Occidental Et Haïti Dans Bain De Lune, Catherine S. Freeman Apr 2021

Les Esprits Vodou, L’Oncle Sam, Et Le Crucifix : Les Relations Endommagées Entre Le Monde Occidental Et Haïti Dans Bain De Lune, Catherine S. Freeman

Senior Theses and Projects

In her novel Bain de Lune, Haitian writer Yanick Lahens opens the doors of her native country to a Western readership that may be unfamiliar with its culture and history, in part because it has been mistreated by Western powers ever since gaining its independence in 1804. Readers are transported to the heart of a culture rich in Haitian Vodou traditions through the interwoven stories of the villagers of Anse Bleue, who struggle to survive the political instability of their country. Vodou is foregrounded through the narrative of the spirit of Cétoute, a young woman who is found dead on …


The Impact Of State Violence On Women During The 22 Years Of Dictatorship In The Gambia, Isatou Bittaye-Jobe Feb 2021

The Impact Of State Violence On Women During The 22 Years Of Dictatorship In The Gambia, Isatou Bittaye-Jobe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the gendered dynamics of dictatorship in The Gambia by exploring the impact of state sanctioned violence on women during former President Yahya Jammeh’s twenty-two years of tyranny in the country. During the two-decade long brutal reign under Jammeh, Gambians from all walks of lives faced gross human rights violations and abuses that inflicted collective national trauma on the population. Therefore, this project examines how Jammeh’s tyrannical rule affected women’s rights, health, and wellbeing. Using a content analysis approach coupled with semi-structured interviews with victims and survivors, I argue that although the dictatorship affected all sectors of the …


Us, Abundantly: From Africa To The Americas, Karisma Jay Jan 2021

Us, Abundantly: From Africa To The Americas, Karisma Jay

Theses and Dissertations

"Us, AbunDantly," a Live theatrical dance performance and film, delves into the African Diaspora and its influences. An artistic and academic project built upon the amplification of Black excellence and Black pride, this paper contextualizes a work within the oral histories and contemporary dance studies of a powerfully ancestral community.


The Nana Yaa Asantewaa War: Analysis Of The Political Institutions Of The Asante During The War Of The Golden Stool And The Existing Narratives, Angela Danso Gyane Jan 2021

The Nana Yaa Asantewaa War: Analysis Of The Political Institutions Of The Asante During The War Of The Golden Stool And The Existing Narratives, Angela Danso Gyane

Senior Independent Study Theses

The War of the Golden Stool was the last in the Anglo-Asante Wars, where the Asante fought against the British colonial agenda. According to the Asante oral history, Nana Yaa Asantewaa was at the forefront of this war. She was the commander, but most of the literature to not reflect this oral history. Therefore, this study seeks to address two essential questions: how did gender dynamics in the Asante Kingdom's political system shape their Resistance against the British in 1900- 01? Moreover, how does the analysis of oral histories from the matrilineal culture of the Asante decenter Western narratives of …


A Devised Ethnodrama: Conscious Voices, Sonia Pasqual Jan 2021

A Devised Ethnodrama: Conscious Voices, Sonia Pasqual

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Using techniques of storytelling, dance, poems, and monologues in the process of re-enacting life stories, the ensemble display issues that may be impeding society’s growth—discrimination against body image, blackness, females, and LGBTQ individuals. In addition, engagement in storytelling and performance can help the audience increase their cognitive skills, empathy, and ability to live a communal life. This evidence-based practice can transform lives and society. It has the potential of continuing to other faculties and with other departments, such as film, musical, and additional narratives. This specific work could be extended out beyond art and education into populations of any communities …


The Birth Of Exceptionalism: American Newspaper Coverage In The Revolutionary Era, Benjamin R. Smith Jan 2021

The Birth Of Exceptionalism: American Newspaper Coverage In The Revolutionary Era, Benjamin R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores American exceptionalism through the lens of American newspapers during the Revolutionary era. As American newspapers covered the revolutions in France, Haiti, and Latin America, unique narratives developed around controversial leaders like Thomas Paine, Toussaint Louverture, and Simón Bolívar. Although at first newspapers covered the events in France and Latin America with glee, their coverage gradually began to change over time, increasingly finding flaws large and small in revolutions other than their own—chaos and violence in France and Haiti, and failures in the realization of republicanism in Latin America. If Americans initially believed their revolution was responsible for …


Evangels Of Emancipation: Missionary Activity In Postemancipation Sierra Leone, Jamaica, And The United States, Rowan Mcgarry-Williams Jan 2021

Evangels Of Emancipation: Missionary Activity In Postemancipation Sierra Leone, Jamaica, And The United States, Rowan Mcgarry-Williams

Pomona Senior Theses

White missionaries shaped the development of social relations and the political economies of post-emancipation Anglo-American societies. They imbued their destinations with a particular logic of freedom, stemming from a shared language of evangelicalism, liberalism, and white supremacy. For missionaries in Sierra Leone, Jamaica, and the United States, freedom meant the ability to engage in Christian worship and market relations. Freedom from Christianity or freedom from the market, however, did not factor into the missionary idea of what freedom entailed. In the face of conflict with formerly enslaved people and a hostile planter class, missionaries ultimately abandoned egalitarian and optimistic visions …


Sweetened Blood, Sweat And Tears, Nathan Celestine Jan 2021

Sweetened Blood, Sweat And Tears, Nathan Celestine

All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

Of the transatlantic diffusion of culture, there is no better example than what developed out of Caribbean enslavement. The loss of African identity among slaves with a common, methodically destroyed ancestry, along with the diversity inherent to the different groups of Africans and Europeans and their respective cultural elements and identities resulted in a complex homogeny of culture, race, nationality, and socioeconomic status that has continued its development since the introduction of slaves to West Indian soil. It was this same soil that would cause the demand for slave labor to explode throughout European-controlled Caribbean islands, from the addition of …


Blood Vs. Water, Sakinah F. Bennett Jan 2021

Blood Vs. Water, Sakinah F. Bennett

Senior Projects Spring 2021

My experiences are me. This project is an excavation of these experiences in order to create consciousness, awareness, assign language, and pay homage to those experiences that have heavily influenced how I move through the world with dance as my medium. I am really interested in the embodiment of history rather than the traditionally written and published history. Acknowledging the history that we hold in our vessels and that history being just as important, present, and valuable as the history we may read.


Virginia Society's Response/ Fancy Fantasy, Peighton Lynsey Young Jan 2021

Virginia Society's Response/ Fancy Fantasy, Peighton Lynsey Young

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Virginia Society’s Response to Revolution Era Manumission and Emancipation Legislation Through Petitions, 1782-1806 Using manumission petitions filed by or on behalf of enslaved Virginians seeking freedom, pro-manumission and emancipation petitions proffered by religious organizations, and anti-emancipation petitions submitted by local enslavers and politicians, this study examines how Virginians, both White and Black, free and enslaved, responded to Virginia’s 1782 manumission act. This law facilitated the liberation of thousands of people in bondage during the first twenty-four years of the early republic period. My analysis highlights a contentious period in Virginia’s early history – a period that began with tenuous hopes …


“Remov[E] Us From The Bondage Of South Africa:” Transnational Resistance Strategies And Subnational Concessions In Namibia's Police Zone, 1919-1962, Michael R. Hogan Jan 2021

“Remov[E] Us From The Bondage Of South Africa:” Transnational Resistance Strategies And Subnational Concessions In Namibia's Police Zone, 1919-1962, Michael R. Hogan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Between 1919 and 1962, the South African government implemented ever more restrictive segregationist and apartheid policies in South West Africa that attempted to control and monitor the social, political, and economic development of Namibians living in South West Africa’s Police Zone. This dissertation examines the transnational resistance campaigns and strategies developed by Namibians living in the Police Zone and their attempts to dissolve and frustrate the colonial state’s implementation of these policies. Particular focus is paid to such transnational institutions/actors as the League of Nations, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the United Nations, and international …


Cannot Afford To Publicly Surrender: The Public's Influence On Ronald Reagan's Strategic Relationship With South Africa, Jessica P. Forsee Jan 2021

Cannot Afford To Publicly Surrender: The Public's Influence On Ronald Reagan's Strategic Relationship With South Africa, Jessica P. Forsee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reagan’s administration used the policy of constructive engagement to bring gradual reform to the apartheid system and build peace in the southern African region. The coordination of anti-apartheid activist organizations and members advocating for harsher economic pressure on South Africa successfully raised US public awareness and shifted public opinion against constructive engagement’s gradualist policies. As a result, leading Reagan staffers like Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Chester Crocker recalibrated constructive engagement’s focus to quicken regional peacebuilding maintain stability and control of US foreign policy in the public eye. This thesis analyzes the early influences on constructive engagement and …