Course Description:
This course will survey the evolution of African environmental and ecological systems over the past 200 years. Subjects will include aspects of the physical environment visible through changes in climate and hydrology, as well as key issues of human/environmental interaction, such as agriculture, deforestation, conservation, famine, malaria, and the role of colonialism and economic development in environmental change. The course will also examine the ways in which outsiders have created myths about the African environment and how Africans have managed their natural resources over time. The course will examine the causes and social effects of famine, vector-borne disease and the impact of political ecology of globalization on African environmental management. Course assignments will cover most geographical regions of Africa, but with special attention to East Africa.
Major Takeaways:
African Environmental History combined elements of Africana Studies, Environmental Studies, and History to achieve a powerful interdisciplinary objective; understanding “Africa” as a complex and nuanced product of African agency against colonial implications and lasting, dangerous misconceptions of the continent as a whole. This course remains one of my favorite classes at Agnes Scott.
Read:
Imagining African Environments: Zoos, Circuses, Menageries, and the Colonial Impulse
