Module HIST56930: Sex, age and violence in East Africa, 1850-1930

Department: History

HIST56930: Sex, age and violence in East Africa, 1850-1930

Pre-requisites

Corequisites

Excluded Combinations

Aims

• To enable students to study at an advanced level the history of East African societies in the late pre-colonial and early colonial periods which will enable students to acquire specific learning outcomes of the programme as whole including:
• a specialist knowledge of imperial history
• bibliographic skills
• an understanding of historical debates
• advanced skills in writing history
• general skills of the historian

Content

• This module will cover selected aspects of the history of East Africa in the pre-colonial and colonial periods, current debate on the subject, and the particular interests of the student. Topics may include the diverse nature of the centralized states of the interlacustrine to the 'gerontocratic' age-set societies of the Rift; the lines of authority and conflict within these different societies and patterns of generational and gender tensions. Topics may also include the effects of later nineteenth-century economic change on these societies, and the engagement between these societies and British and German officials and soldiers in the formative years of colonial rule.

Learning Outcomes

• Students should build up a critical understanding of the history of this aspect of African History and should become aware of the boundaries of current knowledge relating the subject.
• Students should acquire detailed knowledge and critical understanding of one topic chosen in conjunction with the supervisor.

• Students should be able to undertake a programme of intensive reading directed at a number of topics.
• Students should be able to participate in regular discussion of issues arising from the reading with their supervisor.
• Students should then be able to produce an extensive piece of writing on this agreed topic.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Discussion of work in progress. Written or oral comments on any other agreed written assignment, such as a book review or exploratory essay. In addition, supervisors will normally read and provide written comments on not more than one draft of work being prepared for summative assessment.