Syllabus
Harmonogram
1. Africa in a Changing World Introduction to the course. This first meeting focuses on today Africa’s social, political, and cultural context, main articulations, its objectives and methodologies.
2. The African Postcolonial State Analyzing representations of the African state, power, and modes of governance from colonial legacy up to today’s Africa.
3. African Civil Society Examining the emergence the nature and the role of African civil society. In addition, the lecture aims at drawing a parallel between African civil society and Central/Eastern Europe’s recent on the issue.
4. African Youth and Narratives of Order Exploring the participation of African young people into politics and their contribution to social and political change occurring in the continent.
5. Mandela, Ubuntu and the Issue of Race The lecture focuses on Mandela’s political thought and Ubuntu as one of his major philosophical background. The idea of race is approached in the framework of the struggle against the apartheid system.
6. The Idea of Otherness Approaching social and political representations of the “other one” in contemporary African through the context of colonization, postcolonial and globalization eras.
7. Theories of Pan-Africanism The lecture focuses on the founding principles of black people’s solidarity and it explores their relevance for today’s Africa.
8. Gender Questioning gender stereotypes in force in African communities such as same sex relationship and masculinity.
9. Africké společnosti, globální spolupráce a konflikty. Měnící se současné vztahy mezi společnosti, politikami a kulturami ve světě: Afrika, Evropa a USA; Afrika a Čína (African societies, global cooperation and conflicts: Changing contemporary relations among societies, polities, and cultures in the world: Africa, Europe and the USA; Africa and China)
10. Africké společnosti a regiony, jejich vztahy k dalším částem světa, především k rozvojovým zemím, spolupráce Jih-Jih (African societies and regions, and their relations to other parts of the world, South-South-cooperation)
11. Globální politická ekonomie migrace: Východní Afrika (Global political economy of migration: East Africa)
12. Vztahy EU a Afriky ve světle transnacionální migrace (EU-Africa relations in the context of transnational migration)
13. Vztahy mezi měnící se demografií, konkrétně rostoucí populace, a násilím v subsaharské Africe (Relations between changing demography, particularly the growing population, and violence in Sub-Saharan Africa).
14. Approaching the Future Synthesis of main debates, reflection on potential development of the African continent, and global evaluation
Annotation
The lecture course focuses on the relationships between society, politics and culture in contemporary Africa in the current global interactions. The course focuses on explaining the main issues concerning the African societies and social and political thinking in local and global contexts, since the interrelation of these issues can be considered as an explanation of many crises and conflicts. This course is based on a cross-cutting and interdisciplinary approach to exploring themes such as the rise and fall of the African postcolonial state; the emergence and development of African civilian society; the commitment of African young people to democracy and social change; discourse about difference and gender, migration and xenophobia; solidarity relations among Africans (for example through Pan-Africanism paradigm); problems caused by new social, cultural and political conflicts; power relations in an era of global interactions. In addition to this, the course also focuses on critical thinking and comparative approach to African realities and other people and cultures from around the world.
Requirements for passing the course:
Attendance at lectures (30%)
Participation in seminars (30%)
Case study processing (40%)
Rating:
A: 91-100%
B: 81-90%
C: 71-80%
D: 61-70%
E: 51-60%
F: 0-50%