Geography 50: Regional Geography of Africa

Spring Semester, 2003

 

Course Description

 

 

 

Tentative Schedule and Assigned Readings For Lecture

Please note that this is tentative and subject to change.  It is your responsibility to keep up with any changes.

 

Wk

Dates

Topic

Readings

1

Feb 4-6

Intro, Africa in historical perspective

Chap 3

2

Feb 11-13

Africa in historical perspective, Physical Geography, Discussion

Chap 1

3

Feb 18-20

Physical geography, Population dynamics

Chap 5

4

Feb 25-27

Population dynamics, Discussion and 1st paper

 

5

Mar 4-6

Geography and Development, film

Chap 8

6

Mar 11-13

Geography and Development, Discussion

 

7

Mar 18-20

Urban Economies, Midterm

Chap 7

 

Mar 25-27

Spring Break

 

8

Apr 1-3

Social Issues, Discussion and 2nd paper

Chap 9

9

Apr 8-10

Human-Environment Interactions, Guest lecture by Rick Schroeder

Chap 2

10

Apr 15-17

Human-Environment Interactions, Agricultural development, Discussion

Chapter 10

11

Apr 22-24

Agricultural development and food security, Discussion

 

12

Apr 29 – May 1

Political Geography

Chap 12

13

May 6-8

Discussion, Political Geography, African immigrant communities in North America, book review due

Reserve *

14

May 11

African immigrant communities in North America, Review

 

15

May 14-19

Final Exam

 

 

*Readings related to African immigrant communities in North America.

1) Selections from Pollitzer, William. 1999. The Gullah People and Their African Heritage. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.

2) Selections from Conroy, Pat. 1972. The Water is Wide. New York: Avon Books (autobiography  of a young man’s year long experience teaching Gullah-Geechee children in South Carolina).

3) Twin Cities United Way. 2002. “Somali Immigrants in Minnesota.”

4) Lesie, Lourdes Medrano. 2002. “Sights, Sounds of Africa Increasing in Minnesota.” Star Tribune. 6/4/02.

 

 

Discussion Reading Schedule

 

Note: All discussion readings are available via  library and electronic reserves

 

1) Thursday, February 13: Africa in historical and global perspective

 

Issue 1: Is Africa a lost cause?

 

Yes: Kaplan, Robert. 1994. "The Coming Anarchy: How Scarcity, Crime, Overpopulation, Tribalism, and Disease are Rapidly Destroying the Social Fabric of our Planet.” The Atlantic Monthly. 273(2): 44-65..

 

No: Popke, J. 2001. “The ‘Politics of the Mirror’: On Geography and Afro-Pessimism.” African Geographical Review. 21: 5-27.

 

Issue 2: Has the colonial experience fundamentally (negatively) distorted contemporary African development patterns?

 

Yes: Goldsmith, Edward. 1999. “Empires without Armies.” The Ecologist. May/June; and

 

Colcheaster, Marcus. “Slave and Enclave: Towards a Political Ecology of Equatorial Africa.” The Ecologist. 166-173.

 

No: Grier, RM. 1999. “Colonial Legacies and Economic Growth.” Public Choice. 98(3-4): 317-335.

 

2) Thursday, February 27: Population Debates, Dynamics and Health. 1st Paper – policy memo

 

Issue 3: Is overpopulation a major cause of poverty in Africa?

 

Yes: Fornos, Werner. 1998. “No Vacancy.” The Humanist. July/August. 15-18.

No: Logan, B.I. 1991. “Overpopulation and Poverty in Africa: Rethinking the Traditional Relationships.”  Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie. 82(1):40-57.*

 

Issue 4: Is sexual promiscuity a major reason for the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa?

 

Yes: Rushing, W. 1995. The AIDS Epidemic: Social Dimensions of an Infectious Disease. Boulder: Westview Press. (Chapter 3).

 

No: Oppong, J. and Kalipeni, E. 1996. “A Cross Cultural Perspective on AIDS in Africa: A Response to Rushing.” African Rural and Urban Studies. 3(2) 91-112.

 

Other optional Reading (family planning politics):

Richey, L. 1999. “Family Planning and the Politics of Population in Tanzania: International to Local Discourse.” Journal of Modern African Studies. 37(3): 457-487.

 

3) Thursday, March 13: Geography and Development

 

Issue 5: Have structural adjustment policies been effective at promoting economic growth in Africa?

 

Yes: Scott, G. 1998. “Who has failed Africa? IMF measures or the African leadership?” Journal of Asian and African Studies . 33 (3): 265-274

 

Ng, F. and Yeats, A. 1996. “Open Economies Work Better! Did Africa’s Protectionist Policies Cause Its Marginalization in World Trade?” Policy Research Working Paper 1636. The World Bank, Washington, D.C.; and

 

No: Carmody, P. 1998. Constructing alternatives to structural adjustment in Africa. Review of African Political Economy. 75: 25-46.

 

Issue 6: Is globalization positive for African development?

 

Yes: Muchie, M. 2000. “Searching for Opportunities for Sub-Saharan Africa’s Renewal in the Era of Globalisation.” Futures. 32: 131-147; and

 

Mandle, Jay. 2000. “Trading Up: Why Globalization Aids the Poor.” Commonweal. June 2. 15-18.

 

No: Cook, P. and Kirkpatrick, C. 1997. “Globalization, Regionalization and Third World Development.” Regional Studies. 31(1): 55-66; and

 

Dare, Sunday. 2001. “A Continent in Crisis: Africa and Globalization.” Dollars and Sense. July/August. 30-32.

 

4) Tuesday, April 3: Women and Development. 2nd Paper – Newspaper Editorial

 

Issue 7:  Should female genital mutilation (or female circumcision) be accepted as a cultural practice?

 

Yes: Shweder, R. 2000. “What about ‘female genital mutilation’? And why understanding culture matters in the first place.” Daedalus. 129(4): 209-232.

 

No: Population Reference Bureau (PRB). Abandoning Female Genital Cutting: Prevalence, Attitudes and Efforts to End the Practice. Washington, D.C.: Measure Communication Project, Population Reference Bureau (August 2001).

 

Issue 8:: Have development projects adversely affected Africa’s women?

 

Yes: Schroeder, R. 1997. “Reclaiming Land in the Gambia: Gendered Property Rights and Environmental Intervention.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87(3): 487-508.

 

No: Lawrence, P.G., Sanders, J.H. and Ramaswamy, S. 1999. “The Impact of Agricultural and Household Technologies on Women: A Conceptual and Quantitative Analysis in Burkina Faso.” Agricultural Economics. 20: 203-214.

 

5) Thursday, April 17: Human-Environment Interactions

 

Issue 9: Is Sub-Saharan Africa experiencing a deforestation crisis?

 

Yes: Kevin Cleaver and Gotz Schreiber, from Reversing the Spiral: The Population, Agriculture and Environment Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa (1994).

 

No: Thomas Bassett and Koli Zuéli, from “Environmental Discourses and the Ivorian Savanna.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers (March 2000)

 

Issue 10: Is community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) the solution to local resource depletion and wildlife management problems?

 

Yes: Newmark, W.D. and Hough, J.L. 2000. “Conserving Wildlife in Africa: Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and Beyond.” BioScience. 50(7): 585.

 

No: Logan, B.I. and W.G. Moseley. 2002. “The political ecology of poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe’s Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources.” Geoforum. 33 (2002): 1-14; and

 

Neumann, R.P. 1997. “Primitive Ideas: Protected Area Buffer Zones and the Politics of Land in Africa.” Development and Change. 28: 559-582.

 

6) Thursday, May 1: Agricultural Development and Food Security

 

Issue 11: Will human population growth destroy Africa’s agricultural base?

 

Yes: Dasgupta, P. 1995. “Population, Poverty and the Local Environment.” Scientific American. February. Pp. 40-45.

 

No: Tiffen, M., Mortimore, M. and Gichuki, F. 1994. More People, Less Erosion. Environmental Recovery in Kenya. London: Overseas Development Institute. Chapters 1 and 11; and

 

Moseley, W.G. 2000. "Paradoxical Constraints to Agricultural Intensification in Malawi: The Interplay Between Labor, Land and Policy." Department of Geography, Discussion Paper Series. No. 00-1.  Athens: University of Georgia

 

Issue 12: Is drought-related famine primarily an environmentally driven problem in Africa?

 

Yes: UNICEF. 1993. Situation Analysis of Poverty in Malawi. Lilongwe: United Nations in Malawi and the Government of Malawi.

 

No: Vidal, J. 2002. “A Disaster Waiting to Happen.” Guardian. May 3. URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4406336,00.html

 

7) Thursday, May 13: Political Geography

 

Issue 13: Is political conditionality a necessary component of foreign assistance to African nations?

 

Yes: Goldsmith, A.A. 2001. “Donors, Dictators and Democrats in Africa.” Journal of Modern African Studies. 39(3): 411-436.

 

No: Ihonvbere, J.O. 1996. “Where is the Third Wave? A Critical Evaluation of Africa’s Non-Transition to Democracy.” Africa Today. 43: 343-368.

 

Issue 14: Are African governments inherently disposed to corruption?

 

Yes: Rotberg, R.I. 2000. “Africa’s Mess, Mugabe’s Mayhem.” Foreign Affairs. Sept/Oct. 79(5): 47+.

 

No: Goldsmith, A. 2001. “Risk, Rule and Reason: Leadership in Africa.” Public Administration and Development. 21: 77-87.

 

 

Welcome to the course!  I look forward to working with you this semester.