Course description
Images and ideas about Africa have an age-long history and are powerful until today. The consequences of the transatlantic slave trade, of racism, colonialism and capitalism continue to shape the present structural asymmetries and lifeworlds of people in Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora. This seminar goes beyond narratives and Western-centered research about Africa that has, during centuries, contributed to "the invention of Africa" (Mudimbe 1988). Rather, this seminar focuses on African thinkers and their perspectives on the history, presence and possible futures of the African continent and beyond. Post- and decolonial, feminist and activist approaches challenge familiar images and mindsets and opt for new perspectives in order to do justice to the manifold realities and to emancipate from existing dependencies.

Contemporary scholars from Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora build on the anticolonial works of thinkers such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon and others. These intellectual precursors have influenced fresh perspectives, such as Afro-feminism(s) that proposes theories and discourses that are linked to the diversity of African realities; Afropolitanism, a conceptual space that emphasizes ordinary citizens' experiences in Africa on the one hand, and, on the other hand, reconceptualizes the African diaspora's relationship with the African continent; Afrotopia, which deals with philosophies and notions of communal value and economy in Africa as a basis for self-reinvention; racial capitalocene, an analysis that brings together race, capitalism, imperialism and gender; decolonial ecology, which shows how the exploitation and destruction of the environment is intimately linked to colonial and postcolonial forms of domination. Decolonial feminist perspectives in particular allow an intersectional analysis of the mostly hidden connections between race and gender in systematic oppression, both during the time of colonialism and for the present and propose counter-hegemonic narratives towards transformative justice for future generations. Thereby, they mobilize forms of knowledge generated by racialized women.

These various approaches critically reflect on and challenge persisting concepts and Western centered worldviews. In doing so, they propose new paths both in theoretical and practical terms as most of the authors to be discussed are not exclusively scholars, but also activists, politicians, mothers etc.

The fact that many African scholars live in the diaspora shows that the ongoing global inequalities also become manifest in the generation of knowledge and the academic system. At the same time, new technologies enable alternative spaces for sharing knowledge and for entering into dialogue with one another: the Ateliers de la Pensée, for example, founded in 2016 by Achille Mbembe and Felwine Sarr, provide a hybrid forum for scholars, artists and practitioners for current debates about Africa and beyond; formats such as the online-conference Unruly Thoughts (2022) connect feminists from Africa and the diasporas.

In addition to the theoretical input, a joint visit to La Biennale di Venezia is planned. This visit is followed be small research projects that deal with decolonial perspectives in the artistic contributions for the Biennale 2026, curated by Koyo Kouoh.

Learning outcomes
Students in this course will:

• learn about the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and racism and the entanglements between them

• get acquainted with decolonial approaches through the perspectives from scholars from Africa and the diasporas

• demonstrate an understanding of contemporary approaches in the field by analyzing and contextualizing a variety of texts

• develop self-reflection and critical thinking through the engagement with the respective authors

• get acquainted with anthropological research methods and conduct an own small research in group

• articulate convincing evidence-based reasoning in presentation, discussion in working groups and plenum and in the final written paper

Teaching and evaluation methods
The seminar is based on weekly readings. Students have to prepare the reading for each session and bring the texts to the classroom (printed or in electronic version) for collaborative exercises and common discussion. The course is open to students from all disciplines and does not require preliminary knowledge about the topic. However, students are required to prepare at least one text per week. In addition to regular attendance and active participation (1), each student has to give an oral presentation of 15 minutes in class based on reading and own research (2) and to write a final paper of 12-15-pages, including bibliographical references and notes (3). The topic of the paper is chosen in agreement with the professor.

Grade distribution

40% attendance and active participation in class based on the weekly readings
20% oral presentation in class
40% written paper

Bibliography

Ampofo, Akosua Adomako 2016. Re-viewing Studies on Africa, #Black Lives Matter, and Envisioning the Future of African Studies. In: African Studies Review 59 (2): 7-29.

Césaire, Aimé 2019. Resolutely Black. Conversations with Françoise Vergès. Cambridge: polity

Césaire, Aimé 2000 (1950). Discourse on Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review Press Fanon, Frantz 1963 (1961). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove press

Ferdinand, Malcom 2022 (2019). Decolonial Ecology. Thinking from the Caribbean World. Cambridge: polity

Gilroy, Paul 1993. The Black Atlantic. London and New York: verso

Glissant, Édouard 2010 (1990). Poetics of relation. Ann Arbor, Mich.: The University of Michigan Press

Mbembe, Achille 2019. Out of the Dark Night. New York: Columbia University Press Mbembe, Achille 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press

Mudimbe, Valentin-Yves 1988. The invention of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press Nkrumah, Kwame 1976. I speak of freedom: A statement of African ideology. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press

Sarr, Felwine 2019. Afrotopia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Soumahoro, Maboula. 2022 (2020). Black is the journey, Africana the name. Critical South. Cambridge, UK, Medford, MA: polity

Soyinka, Wole 2016. Of Africa. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press

Táíwò, Olúfémi 2022. Against decolonisation: Taking African agency seriously. African arguments. London: C Hurst & Company

Tamale, Sylvia 2020. Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Ottawa: Daraja Press

Vergès, Françoise 2022. A feminist theory of violence: A decolonial perspective. London: Pluto Press

Vergès, Françoise 2017. Racial Capitalocene, in: Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lubin (eds): Futures of Black Radicalism. London and New York: verso, p. 72-82.

wa Thiong'o, Ngũgĩ 2011 (1986). Decolonising the Mind. Oxford: Currey