This module is divided into two parts. 

1. Study skills for African Studies and for Anthropology, including basic orientation to the field, note-taking, identifying and accessing a range of sources, planning, writing and editing an essay, news tracking on the internet, and oral presentation techniques. 

2.  Introduction to inter-disciplinarity in African Studies, including Anthropology: the interactions of history, politics, geography, literature and anthropology in the study of Africa. The exploration of these disciplinary perspectives will be focused around a theme or a geographical area which may change from year to year: e.g. the Atlantic slave trade; the end of Apartheid; African popular music.
Value: 20 credits

This module offers a broad introduction to anthropological approaches to society and culture. It focuses on ethnography, the practice of ‘doing anthropology’ both in Africa and elsewhere. We use film and written texts to open up and discuss central ideas and debates in anthropology.   By the end of the module, students should understand some of the distinctive features of anthropology/ethnography as a mode of describing and analysing societies and cultures, and will have developed a broad range of skills in understanding non-western perspectives.
Value: 20 credits

An introduction to the history of Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Africa in the pre-colonial era, which includes more detailed analyses of themes in the social, governmental and cultural histories of selected African peoples. On completion of the module, students should be able to describe the sources and methods employed by historians of sub-Saharan Africa; describe the historical relationship of sub-Saharan African to other continents; and explain how some key episodes in sub-Saharan African History are relevant to present-day controversies in Africa.
Value: 20 credits

This module provides a broad introduction to development principles, concepts and terminology, which can be used to assess Africa’s changing place within a globalising world economy. It introduces students to different explanations of disparities in material conditions in Africa, and between Africa and other parts of the world, particularly the Global South; and it examines regional and local patterns and processes of planned socio-economic and environmental change.
Value: 10 credits

This module is divided into two parts, each worth 10 credits, which can be taken as separate options.

1. An introduction to the geography of Africa. This provides a broad introduction to human geographical ways of ‘seeing’ and ‘knowing’ the world, and, using these insights, explores a selection of nature-society interactions in and with Africa. Students should gain some understanding of why and how geography matters; have some knowledge of geographical concepts and tools for studying nature and society; be capable of showing how everyday lives at the local level are intricately linked to those of distant people, places and times; and demonstrate how geographers approach the study of Africa and its place in a changing world.

2. An introduction to the sociology of Africa. This introduces students to the ways in which we think about Africa (and the third World more generally), and its peoples, and how these ways of thinking have come about. Through a critical examination of 'development' we look at the historical development of ideas about Africa and Africans and show how social thinking from the C19 onwards has situated Africa(ns)'s place in the world.   By the end of the module students should have a basic understanding of contemporary sociological and historical thinking about the construction of 'Africa', the 'Third World' and 'development'.

Value: 20 credits / 10 credits

This module introduces students to the study and appreciation of African cultures. It emphasises the diversity, complexity and dynamism of culture across the continent, and challenges easy – and essentially racist – notions of a homogenous African cultural world. We have all seen the painted tribesmen and the drums, the starving children, the guerrilla war footage. Almost as pernicious, however, is the ‘roots’ romance view of an Africa that was/is unfailingly just, communalistic and peaceful. This module will disabuse students of simplifications and distortions, while beginning to equip them with the knowledge and skills they will require in order to enjoy, appreciate and intelligently discuss aspects of African culture. Students will be expected to attend and write about a series of cultural events organised within CWAS.
Value: 20credits

The aims of this module are similar to those of ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY, but, as DOING ANTHROPOLOGY is a 10 credit module, students will not reach the same level of detail. Students should not take these two modules at the same time.
Value: 10 credits

The module offers a broad introduction to anthropological approaches to society and culture. It focuses on ethnography, the practice of ‘doing anthropology’ both in Africa and elsewhere. We use film and written texts to open up and discuss central ideas and debates in anthropology. 
Value: 20 credits

This module surveys the continuities and changes in African politics and society from the pre-colonial period to the present, and introduces key conceptual approaches to understanding contemporary African issues. The emphasis falls equally on popular and elite, and domestic and international, concerns and agendas.
Value: 10 credits