Revolution and Decolonization in the Afr

This undergraduate/graduate seminar examines the history of Black revolutionary movements for decolonization from the era of slavery to the late twentieth century. While studies of what historians have called “Black Internationalism” have emerged over the past ten years, the revolutionary and decolonial legacies of Black Freedom movements have tended to be overshadowed by nation-centric models of Black Studies that tend to predominate in the field. This course poses long-standing questions for a new generation of students. How have Black revolutionary thinkers and movements analyzed the racial, class, gendered, and sexual dimensions of colonization? How have they confronted colonial state power and envisioned postcolonial transformation? What obstacles did these movements face? What lessons can be learned from revisiting Black revolutionary traditions? The course employs both intellectual history and social movement methodologies so that students can develop the tools to examine histories of decolonization and the visions of freedom that they inspired. While the class begins with the foundational struggles against slavery, the bulk of the course focuses on the revolutionary struggles of the mid-late 20th century, when a wide array of decolonization movements from Ghana and the Congo, to Cuba and the United States, attempted to challenge Euro-American imperial domination. The course’s diasporic focus, including struggles for decolonization in Africa, prompts students to explore the connections and resonances across national borders and colonial frontiers.