History 2412/ ASRC 2307
The White Image in the Black Mind
Meeting Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:55-4:10
Meeting Place: Stimson 119
Fall Semester 2009
Instructor: Prof. Sandra E. Greene Office Hours: 1:45-2:30 M&W
by appt.
Office: Mc Graw 303 Office Phone: 5-4124
E-MAIL: seg6@cornell.edu
Course Description:
Much has been written about European images of Black men and women and their cultural practices (whether they were African or in the African Diaspora) during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, but how did Africans view Europeans during these periods? How did these images influence the ways Africans and Blacks in the Diaspora saw themselves and how did these images change over time?
These questions and others will be explored in this course by examining a variety of historical, literary and social science texts. Particular attention is given to the colonial period, especially in Francophone West Africa, and the era of segregation in the United States, but it will also explore more modern ideas and, for comparative purposes, the image of Europeans held by other peoples of color in East and Southeast Asia.
Texts: All are on reserve in Uris Library
Books:
1. Mongo Beti, Poor Christ of Bomba
2. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ambiguous Adventure
3. Mia Bay, The White Image in the Black Mind
4. Karen Kelsey, Women on the Verge
5. Philip Curtin, Africa and the West
6. Articles: Listed under the week for which they are assigned
All
are on electronic AND hard-copy reserve in Uris Library (UR)
Course
Organization
As a seminar, the course is organized with the idea that everyone will take active participation in the course by leading the discussion of the readings. In these presentation, students are expected to present a BRIEF summary and analysis of the readings and then lead the discussion about questions they have about the texts we have read.
Active participation on the part everyone is essential. So even if you are not leading the discussion you are expected to participate actively in raising questions about the readings and sharing your reactions.
Course Requirements
1. THREE 5-7 page essays of your choice from the ten topics covered in class (that also take into consideration class discussions on the topics).................................................50%
NOTE: EACH OF YOUR THREE PAPERS MUST COME FROM DIFFERENT SECTIONS. IN OTHER WORDS, YOU MAY NOT WRITE ON TWO OR THREE TOPICS FROM THE SAME SECTION.
2. ONE 10-15 page paper in which you use your three previously written papers and notes from some of the other topics you didn’t write about to talk about the theme of the course: The White Image in the Black Mind…………………………………...…….25%
PLUS
3. Attendance and Class participation...............................…………………....…........25%
More than four absences (included excused ones for
illness) will result in a drop of a letter grade from your final grade for the
course
4. Late papers will not be accepted.
Week 1:
August 31 (Monday): Introduction to Course
September
2 (Wednesday): Background to the Readings
SECTION
ONE
Week 2:
September
7 (Monday): Early Encounters
Readings:
1. UR: Stuart Schwartz, “Introduction,” in Implicit Understandings (1994) 1-9.
2. UR: Wyatt McGaffey, “Dialogues of the deaf; Europeans on the Atlantic Coast of Africa,” in Implicit Understandings , 249-267.
3. UR: T. C. McCaskie, “Innovative Ecclecticism: the Asante Empire and Europe in the Nineteenth Century,” in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 14, 1 (1972) 30-45.
September 9 (Wednesday): A Comparative Perspective from Asia
Readings:
1. UR: Anthony Reid, “Early Southeast Asian categorizations of Europeans,” in Schwartz, Implicit Understandings (1994) 268-294).
SEPT. 14 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE
ON A COMPARISON OF EARLY CONTACTS WITH EUROPEANS IN AFRICA AND ASIA AND
HOW SCHOLARS WRITE ABOUT THEM
WEEK 3: Anglophone African Responses to European Colonialism
September 14 (Monday): Early Anglophone African Intellectual Responses- Background
Readings:
1. UR: Sheldon Gellar, “The Colonial Era,” in Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O’Meara, Africa (1986)122-140.
September 16 (Wednesday): Early Anglophone African Intellectual Responses
Readings:
1. Jean Herskovits, “The Sierra Leoneans of Yorubaland,” in P. Curtin, Africa and the West (1972) 75-98
2. Leo Spitzer, “The Sierra Leone Creoles,” in P. Curtin, Africa and the West (1972) 99-138.
SEPT. 21 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE
ON EARLY ANGLOPHONE AFRICAN INTELLECTUAL RESPONSES TO EUROPEANS/WHITES
WEEK 4: Francophone African
Responses
September 21 (Monday): Francophone African Intellectual Responses- Part I
Readings:
1. G. Wesley Johnson, Jr. “The Senegalese Urban Elite, 1900-1945,” in P. Curtin, Africa and the West (1972) 139-188.
September 23 (Wednesday): Francophone African Intellectual Responses- Part II
Readings:
1. UR: Janice Spleth, Leopold Sedar Senghor, pp. 1-11
2. UR: Abiola Irele, “Negritude: Literature and Ideology”, in Janice Spleth, Critical Perspectives on Leopold Sedar Senghor (1993) 7-30.
3. UR: E. Mphahlele, “ Negritude-A Reply”, in Janice Spleth, Critical Perspectives on Leopold Sedar Senghor (1993) 31-35.
SEPT. 28 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE ON EARLY FRANCOPHONE INTELLECTUAL
RESPONSES TO EUROPEANS/WHITES
SECTION TWO
WEEK 5: Comparative Intellectual Responses from the United States- Part I
September 28 (Monday):
Readings:
1. Mia Bay, The White Image in the Black Mind, Chapter One.
September 30 (Wednesday) -
Readings:
1. Mia Bay, The White Image in the Black Mind, Chapter Two.
OCTOBER 5 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE ON
EARLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL VIEWS OF EUROPEANS/WHITES
WEEK 6: Comparative Intellectual Responses from the United States- Part II
October 5 (Monday)
Readings:
1. Mia Bay, The White Image in the Black Mind, Chapter
Five (p. 150-169 only).
October 7 (Wednesday)
Readings:
1. Mia Bay, The White Image in the Black Mind, Chapter Six.
OCTOBER 12 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN’S
POST-BELLUM VIEWS OF EUROPEANS/WHITES
SECTION THREE
WEEK 7: European Colonialism: African Literary Responses -I
October 12 (Monday)-
Readings:
1. Mongo Beti, The Poor Christ of Bomba (Part One: 3-79)
October 14 (Wednesday) -
Readings:
1. Mongo Beti. The Poor Christ of Bomba (Part Two: 80-165)
WEEK 8:
European Colonialism: African Literary Responses - I
October 19 ( Monday):
Readings:
1. Mongo Beti The Poor Christ of Bomba (Part Three: 166-219)
October 21 (Wednesday) NO CLASS/ COURSE BREAK UNLESS MORE DISCUSSION TIME IS NEEDED
OCT.
26 (FRIDAY): PAPER DUE ON MONGO
BETI AND HIS PORTRAYAL OF EUROPEANS IN HIS POOR
CHRIST OF BOMBA
WEEK 9: European Colonialism: African Literary
Responses - II
October26 (Monday):
Readings:
1. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ambiguous Adventure (Part One: 3-105)
October 28 (Wednesday):
Readings:
1. Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Ambiguous Adventure (Part Two: 109-178)
NOV. 2. (MONDAY): PAPER DUE
ON CHEIKH HAMIDOU KANE’S PORTRAYAL OF EUROPEANS IN HIS AMBIGUOUS ADVENTURE
SECTION FOUR
WEEK 10: Cross- Racial Sex in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa
November 2 (Monday):
Readings:
1. UR: Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks: Chapter Two –Three (41-82)
November 4 (Wednesday):
Readings:
1. UR: Heidi Gegenbach, “What My Heart Wanted”: Gendered Stories of Early Colonial Encounters in Southern Mozambique,” in Women in African Colonial Histories. Edited by Allman, Geiger and Musisi (pp. 19-47).
2. UR: Paul Ebron, “Traffic in Men, “ Gendered Encounters. Edited by Grosz-Ngate and Kokole. (pp. 223-244).
NOV. 9 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE ON THE MEANING IF ANY OF
CROSS-SEXUAL RELATIONS INVOLVING AFRICAN/S BLACKS AND WHITES DURING THE COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL PERIODS
WEEK 11 Cross-Racial Sex in Modern/Post-Colonial Japan- Part I
November 9 (Monday)
Readings:
1. Karen Kelsey, Women on the Verge, Chpt. One.
November 11 (Wednesday):
Readings:
1. Karen Kelsey, Women on the Verge, Chpt. Two.
WEEK 12 Cross-Racial Sex in Modern/Post-Colonial Japan- Part II
November 16 (Monday): Cross-Racial Sex in Comparative Perspective-I
Readings:
1. Karen Kelsey, Women on the Verge, Chpt. Three.
November 18 (Wednesday)
DISCUSSION: COMPARING JAPANESE AND AFRICAN/BLACK EXPERIENCES
NOV. 23 (MONDAY): PAPER DUE
ON CROSS-SEXUAL RELATIONS IN JAPAN/ASIA
WEEK 13: COURSE BREAK
November 23 (Monday): NO CLASS: INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS TO DISCUSS THE FINAL PAPER
November 25 (Wednesday): THANKSGIVING
BREAK
WEEK 14: Modern Responses to Whites as examined in Social Science Studies
November 30 (Monday):
Readings:
1. UR: Ira Bashkow,”Whitemen” Are Good to Think With: How Orokaiva Morality is Reflected on Whiteman’s Skin,” Identities, 7, 3 (2000) 281-332.
December 2 (Wednesday):
Readings:
1. UR: Francis B. Nyamanjoy and Ben Page, “Whiteman Kontri and the Enduring Allure of Modernity among Cameroonian Youth,” African Affairs, 1001 (2002) 607-634.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 7
PAPER DUE ON MODERN
RESPONSES TO WHITES IN ASIA AND AFRICA AS DISCUSSED IN SOCIAL SCIENCE LITERATURE
FINAL PAPER DUE: DECEMBER 18